My second gen was lucky enough to be thermo, and allowed an additional two uplinks, officer training, and alien containment while I dug down to level 3. One fission gen and which supported a second uplink and a lab located on the right side of the lift along with the generator. Your milage may vary but these are the phases I went through. I got lucky and had 2 steam vents on the right side of the access lift, so I've got a pair of thermo gens and haven't needed elerium.
My base has gone through a couple of phases, and I'm only just now reaching "base endgame" as I'm calling it. In my experience you should plan your base around some major milestones you want to be achieving. I'll often have mini-blocks for power, with 2 or 3 in a row, rather than trying to get 2x2 or 2x3 set-ups.
Chances are you'll be able to replace the fusion generators with elerium ones long before any lack of adjacency becomes a big issue as long as you use the steam vents. Secondly, steams vents are important enough to be planned around, so try not to get too hung up on a big power block.
2 across and 3 down works just as well and gives you that space on the far left for an early generator or two. Firstly, whilst the uplink/nexus bank needs to be 2x3, don't get stuck into only looking at 3 across and 2 down. Personally I skip beam and rush gauss but it does make May a bit tricky, so it depends greatly on your comfort level with facing mutons with just ballistic weapons.Ĭouple of minor tips. I start in Europe now so I tend to just get a 2nd lab and take the pressure off captures but its a valid strategy for sure.Īs far as research goes rushing beam lasers is the most common approach. This is a great synopsis of the facility needs, and a good point about only needing one lab if the captures go well.