![Image](https://i.imgur.com/un2aO82.jpg)
Why
With the upcoming expansion and the vast amount of material processing required for quality, megabases and advanced research, a lot of people will be running the game AFK. Despite the huge benefit this brings, it comes with an obvious problem: entropy! We all know the variety of ways a base can grind to a halt (or perish completely) if left unattended:
- Resources or items can run dry
- Traffic jams on rail networks
- Ammo running out for defenses
- Defenses overrun entirely
- etc...
How it works
Functionally its pretty similar to a speaker. It has the triggering logic GUI just as any other circuit network object uses to activate it. Just like speakers function, for ease of locating it after it fires, hardwire it flashing on the map as well as in the main circuit GUI for some ample amount of time. Graphic icon can be customized in the object's GUI. Output text can also be customized, just like a speaker. There should be some trivial amount of electric consumption required, perhaps in line with other circuit network combinators if not slightly more.
Visual Appearance
Completely up to you, but in my mind it was a several foot wide satellite dish pointed up at the sky, sitting on either a concrete pad or a utility box like you'd see in a neighborhood. 1x1 would be nice, otherwise 2x2?
Use in game
There is no limit to placing these, just as any other item. Players will either have one centralized 'pauser' that all triggers route into, or they'll be distributed throughout the map, closest to the places that warrant triggering pause.
Additional notes
Include a mod option to set the timeout for how often pauses can be triggered with this item. This is to prevent pause from being fired continuously, and can give some padding of however many seconds/minutes/hours you want that acts as a timer for the next time pause can be triggered.
Conclusion
For those of us serious about the game who want to push our bases to the limit in the upcoming expansion, this will be a valuable tool that gives an added level of protection and control when the game runs unattended.