| “ | The first order of business after Planetfall was to secure a food supply. Few native life forms were edible without extensive processing, so wide tracts of land were turned over to Earth-style agriculture. | „ |
| ~ GURPS |
Terraforming refers to the actions your formers can carry out to improve the terrain around your bases and their productivity. Formers can also be used offensively, in a way, to bridge landmasses using the raise terrain command, isolate enemies by lowering it, or creating mountains to reduce rainfall: Mountains 2000m above sea level and higher significantly affect cloud formation and rainfall by trapping the moisture being carried by the prevailing wind. Basically this means that areas "downwind" (in this game, "east", or "right") of a mountain will be dryer, and areas "upwind" of a mountain ("west", or "left") will be wetter as moisture is trapped to their benefit. You can take advantage of this phenomenon by having your Formers raise mountains to "dry out" your downwind opponents or to increase rainfall for your upwind bases.
Land improvements[ | ]
| Improvement | Effect | Turn | Prerequisite |
|---|---|---|---|
| +1 nutrients in a land square | 4 | ||
| +1 nutrients in a land square with a farm (+2 total) | 8 | ||
| +1 in flat and rolling land squares +2 in rocky +3 in rocky squares with roads +1 in areas with minerals resources |
8 | ||
| +1 energy per 1000m of elevation | 4 | ||
| Produces 1 nutrients and energy and 2 minerals | 4 | ||
| Reduces movement costs for land units by 2/3 | 1 | ||
| Units move at no cost through mag tubes | 3 | ||
| +50% defense for stationed units | 5 | ||
| Air units can land at airbases to repair and refuel | 10 | ||
| Detects enemy units in a two square radius Defending friendlies in that area gain +25% to defense |
4 | ||
| Raises rainfall levels in surrounding squares by one full grade Produces +1 nutrients in own square and stacks with a farm |
12 | ||
| +1 energy collected in surrounding squares Doubles as a solar collector Echelon mirrors do not affect one another |
12 | ||
| +6 energy and minerals per borehole Cannot produce nutrients Cannot be built on slopes |
24 | ||
| Produces 2 nutrients, minerals, and energy Upgrades military units by one full morale level (once) |
Cannot be built | ||
Sea improvements[ | ]
| Improvement | Effect | Turn | Prerequisite |
|---|---|---|---|
| +2 nutrients in a sea square | 4 | ||
| +1 minerals in a sea square (+2 with Advanced Ecological Engineering) | 8 | ||
| +3 energy in a sea square | 4 |
Orders[ | ]
| Improvement | Effect | Turn | Prerequisite |
|---|---|---|---|
| Aquifier | Creates new river from point of drilling to the coast | 18 | |
| Raise | Increases altitude by 1000m Can be used to raise sea floor and create dry land |
12 | |
| Lower | Reduces altitude of target area by 1000m Can be used to deepen the sea floor |
12 | |
| Level terrain | Reduces rockiness of a square | 8 | |
| Remove fungus | Removes xenofungus | 6 | |
| Plant fungus | Cultivates xenofungus in target square | 6 |
