There are rules describing the ability to expand existing structures of size 4 or larger…using Resource points to do so. The example in the rules explains that once you’ve expanded a ‘Hut’ from size 4 to size 8, it now counts as a ‘Shelter’ (and when it expands to occupy 12 squares it counts as a ‘Lodge’)… can the same logic be applied to a ‘Maintenance Shed’ or a ‘Stores’ which are both size 4…it seems silly to require a growing settlement to keep throwing down 2x2 sheds with a minimum open space of 2 squares between the outer walls of each one, when you could expand a ‘Maintenance Shed’ to say, a ‘Workshop’…or a ‘Stores’ to say, a ‘Warehouse’ (or some-such)…where, as you expand the area from 4 to 8 to 12, etc, it would ‘count-as’ 2 and then 3 of the base type (i.e. a size 12 ‘Maintenance Shed’ would count as 3 Maintenance Sheds, and allow you to save up to 3 item cards or 6 boost cards (or some combination of that) after a battle.
This is less of a ‘can I game/break the rules?’ inquiry…rather, it’s more of an aesthetics and natural looking layout of structurs thing for me…because rules as written, there doesn’t seem to be anything stopping me from expanding a ‘Maintenance Shed’ into the size of a barn/workshop…but it doesn’t give explicit guidelines on logically scaling the ‘structure purpose’ (game mechanics) rules to match that size.
Just to clarify, is this asking about Homestead rather than Settlement Mode?
Huts, Shelters and Lodges are called out in the Extensions rules because they are a set of three buildings which get better the more you build onto them.
There is no such option in the expansion for other structures in terms of their in-game effect scaling with the size of the building. There is nothing stopping you from creating your own house rules to fill in this gap though - just be sure to share them on the forums if you do!
Yeah, I’ve decided to house rule this…I’m not a rules writer, but this is what I came up with:
Structure Expansion Rules: If you chose to expand an existing structure, rather than plop down several of the same type…use the existing constraints laid out in the Homestead rules (on page 10) including number of doors required, with the following changes:
When a structure (base size 4 or larger) that provides a resource/benefit is expanded to a multiple of it’s base size (4 → 8 or 8 ~> 12, etc.) the resources should scale to match as if a new structure of that type was just placed….for example: A ‘Maintenance Shed’ (base size ‘4’) is expanded by 4 squares (using 4 resources, 1 for each square of expansion), it now counts as a ‘Small Workshop’ (and counts as two Maintenance Sheds). This structure now allows the player to keep 2 item cards or 4 boost cards acquired during the previous battle/game. This could also be 1 item card and 2 boost cards.
Advantage would be you don’t have rows of 2x2 buildings all over the place with 2” spaces between them all (mostly aesthetic, but also reduces footprint by removing the 2” gap between each shed built individually…making more room for other structures)…Disadvantage is, it counts as a single building for damage allocation…but I think we can mitigate this a bit, giving the building reduced functionality when damaged, instead of rendering the whole thing unusable…
When purchasing a utility structure (listed under other in the table p.7) for the second or greater time you may chose to expand the structure instead. The expanded structure provides the function and requires power/ water equal to the number of structures purchased but counts as a single structure for damage purposes. Expanding in this way ignores the normal space between structures rule, costs caps rather than resources, has a size equal to the number of structures purchases (up to a maximum of 20) and requires a number of doors equal to what that number of individual structures would have.
Example: Your settlement has one Barracks and you wish to add a second one. Pay 130 caps. The Barracks now occupies 16 spaces, has 4 doors, requires 4 power + 2 water, and may discard 2 conditions during setup. As a combined structure it is counted as a single building for damage allocation and effects.
I like it. I was trying to use the existing expansion rules laid out for the hut/shelter/lodge and apply it to the other buildings, but this is simpler (and cheaper, early game)