Construction

Construction is the process of constructing constructs, a.k.a. "vehicles", a.k.a. "units", a.k.a. "forces", a.k.a. you name it.

For the purpose of helping you, the reader, understand what's going on, we'll just call them Constructs throughout this wiki.

Roles

Aside from Combat, there are several different tasks which a construct can be made to carry out:

• Resource harvesting: In order to even build a construct, you first need to possess the resources to do so. Resource deposits are scattered across the map, and can be harvested with the Material Gatherer. Because deposits do not move, harvesting is best done using either a Structure or a Sky Fortress. Additionally, the destruction of a construct typically leaves behind a pile of salvageable debris, which can be collected by ANY other construct that comes close enough and has the capacity to carry these additional resources.
• Logistics: Most powerplants consume some sort of resource in order to function, and many of the various weapon systems have their own resource demands as well, never mind that simply constructing these systems, and the constructs which they're part of, requires a non-trivial amount of materials to begin with. As such, it generally makes sense to develop a vehicle specifically to carry large quantities of resources from... wherever the resources were harvested, we suppose, to wherever you intend to use them. Structures can also be used to stockpile resources in a fixed location, allowing them to function as supply depots or regional transportation hubs.
• Construction and Repairs: Assembling new constructs, and repairing them after combat (or collisions), can be done using the player avatar's repair tentacles (toggled by the F7 key by default), but this is a very slow process, and requires that the avatar remains very close to the construct being built/repaired. For the sake of practicality, the Repair Tentacle Block enables a construct to draw resources from its own reserves, and use them to build or repair another construct. Constructs can also be equipped with Repair Bot docks, which will allow them to effect repairs on themselves.
• Geographical surveying and Signal reconnaissance: The Strategic Antenna can be equipped onto any construct (but benefits greatly from being at a high altitude!), and will help you uncover new regions of the world map, as well as detect signals from the constructs of other factions, allowing you to determine their type and speed before they come close enough to enter combat. Because of their size and how they benefit from being used at high altitudes, these antennas are typically mounted on specialized reconnaissance constructs, such as Structures built high up on mountaintops, or some kind of relatively slow-flying Vehicle.
• Fire Direction: Using the Inter-vehicle Transmitter, a construct (not just vehicles, mind you!) can share target data with other constructs from the same faction. Now, each construct will typically have its own means of finding the enemy, but, it can be difficult to detect enemies at long ranges, and combat damage may degrade a construct's ability to find and accurately track the enemy's position. Thus, it can be prudent, depending on the circumstances, to have another construct supply them with target data, both to extend the effective range of the recieving construct's weapons, and to compensate for their loss of targeting capacity due to battle damage. The Logical extreme of this concept is the "spotter" construct, i.e. a construct which exists purely to find, track, and relay the enemy's position to its allies.

Subsystems

More than simply existing in the world, these are components, or component assemblies, which determine what a construct can DO. These are listed below, in the approximate order of dependency.

Command/Control

A construct technically doesn't need any of these per se. For example, if you're building a supply depot that only has to recieve, store, and relinquish resources, it's enough to simply create a new structure and plonk down as many resource storage blocks as you feel that you need.
If, however, you need a construct to actively DO something, either under your direct control or by its own volition, you'll need to equip it with one or several blocks from this category in order to make it do what you want.
The most basic specimen of the category is the Ship's wheel, which allows you to manually operate some (but not necessariy all) of a vehicle's Propulsion and Steering components as long as you're standing relatively close to the wheel. Sky Fortresses use the Fortress controller which does much the same thing. As for weapons, the Fire control computer allows you to manually aim and fire those.

There are actually quite a few blocks for manually controlling constructs, but let's move ahead to the point where you realize that it's simply too much for one person to manage. Too many weapons, too many propulsion and steering systems, and who knows what else, and too many targets for you to manually spot, identify, track, and engage. What do?
Enter the AI Mainframe. The mainframe, after being given a Maneuver routine to let it know what sort of construct it's been placed on, can drive a construct from A to B using the construct's Propulsion and Steering components (unless it's a Structure; structures don't go anywhere), and will typically do a half-decent job at it. If the Mainframe is also provided with information regarding the whereabouts of enemy constructs, it can maneuver relative to the enemy using one or several combat behaviours, and will also attempt to forward the target data to any Local Weapon Controllers on its construct, allowing these LWCs to aim and fire their respective weapons at a target. Further behaviors, such as target prioritization, aimpoint selection, and even the ability to switch between combat behaviors depending on the characteristics of the current primary target, can be enabled by adding additional AI components to the Mainframe

Beyond the most complex functions of the AI Mainframe assembly, there exists the Bread Board and the LUA Box, which are a whole different realm of worm-cans that we won't even discuss here, beyond mentioning that they exist. Good luck to you, if you decide to delve into that topic.

Resource storage

If the construct is supposed to operate any kind of Weapon or Propulsion system, it will almost certainly require a steady supply of resources, either to fuel the powerplant needed to operate the propulsion systems, or to reload the weapons. Or both. Probably both. The exact amount of storage capacity required will depend on the rate at which these subsystems consume resources, and how long you wish for these systems to remain operable before resupplying the construct. Fortunately, storage doesn't require any particular planning; as long as you have some leftover space to install the storage blocks, you can expand the construct's resource capacity as much as you like.

Powerplants

Powerplants are the sources of the motive power used to drive various subsystems throughout a construct, most commonly Propulsion systems, but several Weapons are also power-driven, as well as some Defence systems.

Propulsion and Steering

Propulsion and Steering systems will be handled on the dedicated Vehicle page (except for the Sky Fortress Turbine, which will be discussed on the relevant page for that topic).

Detection systems

As mentioned in the section about Command and Control components, a construct's AI can recieve target data from its allies... But before a Inter-construct Transmitter can send target data anywhere, the target data must first be generated. This is what Detection components do, and it is absolutely essential that you have at least some of these, somewhere in the battle area, or else NONE of your AI-controlled vehicles will even know that there is a battle going on, let alone WHERE the enemy construct(s) are, never mind trying to effectively engage and defeat the threat.
Because they are closely intertwined with the functions of the AI Mainframe, these components are found in a sub-folder within the "AI" tab in the build menu.

Weapons

The primary means of destroying an enemy, weapons come in various forms, including projectile weapons (i.e. some kind of cannon), self-propelled weapons, fricking laser beams, Napalm, oversized plasma cutters, Small Hadron Colliders, Big Hadron Colliders, Improper use of mining equipment, Tactical Nuclear Warheads, and Big Spikes.

Protective measures

Not so much a subsystem in and of itself, Protection is more like a philosophy of where to place a construct's various subsystems in order to minimize the probability of them being damaged or destroyed, or to at least delay their destruction long enough that whatever's causing the the damage can be dealt with.

There's also armour. Armour is a good protective measure. We should've led with that. Oh well.

Defence systems

If Protection is the study and implementation of ways to absorb damage and keep going, Defence systems are how you actively prevent the arrival of enemy ordnance at your location, once preventing said ordnance from being launched at you at all is no longer an option. This category includes radio jammers for disrupting guidance datalinks and inter-construct data sharing networks, a collection of detection systems tailored towards detecting incoming munitions and triggering the deployment of more reactive measures, hardkill weapon systems that destroy incoming ordnance while it's still on its way to you, various decoys that might distract homing weapons during their terminal approach phase, last-ditch "Please-hit-HERE-signs" that might be used to draw the attention of incoming homing weapons towards less-important parts of a construct, and, lastly, shield generators.

Miscellaneous subsystems

We're not yet sure how to categorize these, but we feel that they might be important.

Heart Stone

This block transmits power to the player avatar during Story Missions and in Adventure Mode, and as such keeps the player alive. Because the death of the avatar results in a game-over state, the player is effectively tethered to their constructs in these game modes, and can only disembark for brief periods (such as to board and seize a disabled enemy construct) before hurrying back to recharge.

Repair systems

Consisting of the Repair Bot dock and the Repair Tentacle, these systems enable constructs too build and/or repair themselves, or another construct, respectively.

Remote Vehicle handling

Briefly explained as the process of spawning and docking or undocking vehicles from another construct. Distinctly different from the process of building or repairing a construct, this process involves the use of the Blueprint Spawner, the Subvehicle Spawner, and/or the Docking Station, and/or the Origin Block to spawn, tether, release, and re-tether vehicles from another construct. Commonly employed in the creation and operation of aircraft carriers and other mothership-type constructs.