Question about how banners work

[Caxius]

I want to expand my colony so that it's one large city, but I notice that zombies spawn inside my walls due to the safe zone being the size of the original colony banner I set down. So (to make this a bit easier to answer):

1. Does placing an outpost banner within the same walls create another colony, even if the safe zones overlap? (If I place, say, 10 banners to cover the entire area within my walls; will it create 10 separate colonies or am I able to merge them into 1, how I intend?)

2. If it does create separate colonies, is there a practical way to expand the banner safe zone that isn't gated behind late-game research? (preferably no glitches/bugs/mods)

Changing to topic to proper Outposts now:

3. If I place an Outpost, does it share resources/science with the main colony, or is it basically starting at 0 for everything?

4. Which banner will subsequent colonists spawn at? If I need colonists at a mining outpost far away, will they spawn on the banner closest to the job they need to fill, or will they always spawn back at the main colony?

I apologize for being so long-winded with my questions. They also might be dumb questions, but I would rather ask them than spend hours doing something the wrong way and having to start from scratch.

Thanks in advance!

[Jacob]

Each outpost creates it's own safe zone, shares with other attached banners, and overlaps are respected.
BUT to activate the safe zone of a banner you will need to add at least 1 colonist to it (i.e. its local threadlevel has to be > 0).

Use the colony tab to switch between the different banners, if overlap occurs.

Keep in mind, if you place a bed or job(block) or add a new colonist, it will be attached to the active banner, and colonists/beds are not shared between banners.

For colony points based expansion, early/mid game I use the place, expand, pickup method.
Around 05:00 hour game time I place enough lockboxes to contain the colony points I need.
I then start selling goods to reach the needed total of points.
After getting all expansions/science I want to have, I will remove the placed lockboxes.
If you remove those lockboxes before 17:00 hour gametime, it will have no effect on the spawn next night.
If you have the failsafe active, you can, to be safe, activate that failsafe between placing and pickup of the lockboxes.

[Caxius]

Okay, so if I'm understanding this correctly:

If I want to build an outpost further away, I would have to chain banners to that outpost in order for it to share resources? Also, colonists will only spawn on whichever banner I have "active"? Forgive me, but how do you determine which one is intended to be active?

[Glimmer]

Outposts always share resources and science, no matter how far apart.

[Jacob]

Originally posted by Caxius:

Okay, so if I'm understanding this correctly:

If I want to build an outpost further away, I would have to chain banners to that outpost in order for it to share resources? Also, colonists will only spawn on whichever banner I have "active"? Forgive me, but how do you determine which one is intended to be active?

No you can place an outpost anywhere you want. No chaining needed.
The moment you place an outpost banner, you have immediatly access to all resources of the main colony and other linked outposts.

And yes, just like jobblocks and beds, colonists will be assigned to the banner you have active at the moment of recruiting. (Re)spawn will always tkae place at the banner the colonist was recruited for.

You have to keep in mind that each banner has 2 zones attached to it.
The banner safe zone: a zone where zombies will not spawn, Size is between 30 and 100 blocks to each side of the banner. Will only be aqctive if at least 1 bed and 1 colonist is assigned to the banner.
The second zone is what I call the banner active zone. This zone is (fixed) 200 blocks to each side of the banner.
It is within this zone you have full access to the inventory, and within this zone you can place job-blocks and beds.

When you place a new banner at a distance of more than 400 blocks of another banner, you will have no overlap. If you go from the first banner to the new banner, you will lose the colony information on screen the moment you leave one banner active zone untill you enter the banner active zone of the other banner. Outside a banner active zone you will have personal inventory access only.

However if you place a new banner within 400 blocks of another banner, there will be an area of overlap.
Inside that area of overlap, both banners can become active. One will be automaticly assigned (not sure how that is decided, but i think the closest one).
If you open the Colony-tab of your inventory, you will see (bottom left) a list of banners that can be made active at that position. Here you can select the banner you want to assign job-blocks and beds to and recruit colonists for.

And about how to determine what banner should be active on placement or recruiting, that is up to you and will depend on why you want to place a banner within the active zone of another banner.

[Caxius]

@jacob

Man, thank you so much. Your instructions have been a huge help!