Incredibly I just stumbled across it at random while using the Signal Booster to find the drop pods I needed to complete the last row of cargo slots in my exosuit. They seem to have expanded the cargo slots to 48 at some point, as I thought I had maxxed out back when I last played (Beyond update), but there was now an extra row for me to add.
I had just added the last slot at a pod, used my visor to see if there were any knowledge stones, buried tech modules or other interesting point nearby, saw a trio of knowledge stones that turned out to be a ruin (which I explored), and while standing on top of the ruin I saw the top part of the mega-post poking out above some nearby hills, and several ships coming and going. I was floored when I crested the hill and saw the enormity of it. I actually thought ALL trading posts were going to be like that now in the game until I visited a couple more on other planets and figured out how lucky I had been.
I don’t think strictly speaking those giant buildings are trading post but I guess the same kind of activities happen there except those large buildings have more to offer. I was lucky when I set up my base, it was between two established sites… a comma tower and another small settlement. As it turns out I found out that if you go from my base past the settlement that one of these giant buildings is right there. And then I recently found out if you go from my base over the comms tower that another giant building I s nearby in that direction so I luckily settled near a bunch of activity.
I found this giant buildings are pretty easy to spot if you fly over the surface of a planet for a while they are so large compared to everything else that if one if you go near one after the pop in it is hard to miss. That’s using third person view of course.
Looks like they are called a Colossal Archive or Planetary Archive, and were added to the game with the Origins update in September of 2020. They function similar to a trading post in that they have multiple landing pads for NPC ships and a trade terminal with the same pricing/supply as a regular outpost, but they also have a Guild Envoy, a Technology Merchant, a Planetary Chart vendor (15 nanites per map), Artifact Exchange Vaults where you can exchange ancient artifacts you’ve found for higher tier (value) ones and a Planetary Archive Terminal which acts sort of like a ruin, dispensing race-specific lore and rewards. There are also multiple NPCs you can interact with.
Colossal Archives are discoverable using Planetary Charts (inhabited outpost). Apparently multiple Archives can exist on the same planet or moon.
LMN8R
5622
One of the next gen announcements is that people can build much more elaborate bases - how does that work cross-platform though? If you’re on an Xbox One or PS4, can you still join multiplayer games with PS5 / Xbox Series owners, and your frame rate will just tank?
Timex
5624
This game looks and plays amazing on the XSX. It’s also on gamepass, It’s added a ton since the last time I played, and really smoothed out the edges since launch.
Been working on my base building skills the past few sessions. I’ve got a very nice looking base built above that colossal archive thingy, just need to power most of it (I only have solar panels powering the vaults so I can store stuff) and then add some extras like a landing pad, exocraft pads and maybe some vanity rooms (for displaying all the space junk I’ve accumulated).
I need to go to the Nexus and add the surveyor unit to my visor so I can scope out any electromagnetic power sources around my base and drop converters on them, then find a nice looking way to wire those back to the base itself. I’ve learned a lot experimenting these past few nights, base building is way more complex than it used to be. I also like that you can use Left-CTRL to “unbuild” anything, regaining all the resources that you used to make it, as this makes experimenting so much easier and fun when you don’t have to worry about wasting resources.
Timex
5626
I’ve been enjoying this on the XSX, after not playing for ages. It’s impressive how much they’ve added. There are still plenty of glitches and bugs, but it certainly seems better than it used to be in this regard.
Money seems a lot easier to make now.
Got my surveyor unit built and installed and … there are no power hotspots anywhere near my base. Damn. Looks like I’ll be building a nice solar array farm to feed into lots of batteries for when it gets dark.
Large solar/battery farms can be really bad for performance, FYI, although that depends to an extent on how you’ve designed your base. I’ve had to scrap and rebuild bases for that reason. If yours is built with mostly large prefabs, you might be fine. Might be worth doing another scout before you decide.
Edit: forgot to share this, just in case you didn’t know how far out your boundaries can actually be extended:
Timex
5629
Hey, since they changed this and now you can have multiple bases…
Is there a limit to how many bases you can have?
If you delete a base, does all the stuff from it go into that special base storage thing like it used to? Where you could get it out from building one of those recovery things?
I’m sure there’s a limit to the number of bases you can have but I have made bases everywhere (not large ones, but bases nevertheless) and have never run into any issues.
Regarding the power sources, I was trying to build a base near a portal and the power source was close but not very close. I put down the base computer at the power source and installed the generator there and then I went as close as I could to the portal and built a lot of stuff there. When I came back in another session, the game had moved my base computer to the midpoint between the power generation and the base I had actually built. Which struck me as weird but not super objectionable.
I’ve done this before. On PC. Worked great, until I logged out and came back a while later. There were very odd loading issues with that base and I ended up dismantling the stretched out parts.
Perhaps if all you have is the EM Generators further out and after building them you never go look at them you will be fine. It was also a large base, so maybe the increases in base size will have fixed this. Just, beware, esp. if on PC.
Expanding the base boundaries might have been the tipping point there, but from personal experience I suspect the number of/type of base pieces were the main factors. Generally, so long as you limit the number of non-prefab and small prefab smaller pieces somewhat, you should be able to minimize or avoid loading issues. I’ve built tons of bases that way.
Agree that it was the expanding the base. Have had other large bases that had no issues.
So if I find a hotspot 1000u away from my base, how do I get a power cable connection to stretch 1000u from the generator back to my base parts?
I used lights. Run past base as far as it lets and where the power cable terminates, slap down a light. That gets you more range. Pick up the power cable and run toward the power spot as far as you can. Another light. Repeat.
Lights are simplest and what I use as well. But if you want a bit more immersion, you could try power pylons using half arches.
Stolen from reddit:
You might want to consider something a little more elaborate if you’re running a pipeline also. Usually I try to run both electrical and pipes in the same run. Saves time.
If you’re stringing power line you can click anywhere and it will make a connector, you don’t need to connect a source and a destination with a single line. I have made power lines that have maybe 20 “joints” in them (in my base above I ran it under a walkway from the generator to the portal and then at the end brought it up through the floor to the building.
