Background Bracing

Background bracing is a basic building material. It is a background equivalent of Bracing.

## Characteristics

### Pros

Hide your structures and weapons, lets wind pass

### Cons

Lets bullets pass through, can catch fire

### Special

Architect : 20% cheaper, twice as fast to build

## Overview

Bracing and Background Bracing are primary building materials for most applications. They form the bulk of every fort at the beginning of the game, and are used to expand the base. While Background Bracing cannot support devices and weapons, it will simply convert to Bracing automatically when something is built on it, unless the length of the strut is overlapping an object that's already present.

Additionally, converting standard Bracing into Background Bracing is free; this is not the case the other way around. This allows the placement of objects inside Bracing without any additional fees; for example, placing a Cannon while at maxed storage (900/5000) in a box made of foreground Bracing.

Background Bracing maintains some of the functions of Bracing, the primary one being forming of the main structure of the fort. The greatest difference is that Background Bracing allows most projectiles to pass through without any interaction. There are some exceptions:

* Buzzsaw and Howitzer projectiles will collide with Background Bracing directly.
* Plasma Laser and Orbital laser will ignite all struts the beam goes through, and will deal a portion of their damage to any Background Bracing they pass through.
* Firebeam ignites Background Bracing on its path.
* Rocket, EMP Rockets, and Incendiary Mortar shells ignite Background Bracing they fly through, but will not collide with it.

Alongside regular Bracing, Background Bracing is the cheapest material in the game and one that builds the fastest (with the exception of the Rope, which has no build time).

Background Bracing is very light, and at 12.5 points of weight per 50cm (1 grid length), it is only heavier than the Energy Shield (with the weight of 2.5) and Rope (with the weight of 0.05).

Notably, Background Bracing has a lower amount of hitpoints than the regular Bracing - 100hp compared to 150hp of the latter. Like all materials, Background Bracing has a limited tolerance for compression and stretching, however it is slightly less resilient in that respect compared to most other materials. If compressed/stretched by 8% past its original construction length, it will snap (compared to 10% of most other materials). For example a 3-grid-long brace will be destroyed if compressed more than 2.76 grid length). For this reason Background Bracing can withstand more weight the longer it is, albeit at reduced effectiveness compared to other materials.

Also like other materials, Background Bracing will snap off if it rotates more than 30 degrees in its joint (relative to the initial angle it was built at).

Background Bracing can be connected to terrain with the Foundations texture, making a foundation node. This incurs a flat cost of 50 metal and 400 energy on top of the cost of the strut itself. Foundation nodes cannot be created on terrain without the Foundations texture.

   Background Bracing does not block wind for Wind Turbines, nor does it obstruct Smoke Stacks or Propellers, allowing the placement of structure around the devices without lowering their efficiency.

Like other materials, Background Bracing built in an arrangement where 3 connected struts form sides of a triangle will enable it to display cladding, obscuring the contents. This can be used to hide weapon doors, as when their exterior is obscured by cladding, they cannot be seen opening. This makes weapons les vulnerable to door sniping, as it deprives the opponent of a visual warning when an attack is coming. Note that the sound of the door opening will still be audible.

## Strategies

Aside from building structure of the fort around Wind Turbines, Propellers and Smoke Stacks without reducing their efficiency, Background Bracing is generally used whenever it is desirable to let projectiles pass through unimpeded instead of colliding with the base; for example, in front of weapon doors.

Background Bracing is highly vulnerable to attacks from the Howitzer and the Buzzsaw, owing to their ability to strike it directly. While this is generally a detriment, it can sometimes be exploited to form a cheap form of defense against these weapons without obstructing one's own weapons. Extruding a dense mass of Background Bracing some distance from the front of the base can cause an incoming Howitzer shell to detonate safely away from valuable parts of the fort; this is especially useful when defending weapons, as otherwise the shell would go straight through to the doors and annihilate the weapon's defenses.

Another defensive tactic is to prepare a vertical tower of shelves for Sandbags in front of the weapons, using Background Bracing. Such a tower will not obstruct own weapon's fire directly. In the face of an imminent attack, Sandbags can be quickly placed on the shelves, intercepting the incoming projectiles. This method is effective against attacks from explosive weapons, such as a Warhead or a Howitzer.

Like regular Bracing, Background Bracing is highly vulnerable to being set on fire, such as with a Firebeam.

Properly placed long struts of Background Bracing at critical junctures can form a resilient support for the weight of the base and serve as an additional measure for preventing a collapse. A technique of building Background Bracing specifically for this purpose is known as Stability Tech. While this can be employed with regular Bracing as well, it is more beneficial to use Background Bracing for this purpose, as not only does this make it less vulnerable to being destroyed, but also allows it to be placed where Mines are present. While this can leave the insides of the base more vulnerable, it is typically a safer option to allow whatever is behind stability tech to be hit, instead of letting the supporting structure itself to be destroyed. If the stability tech is destroyed, the entire base is likely going down.

## Trivia

* While in development phase, Forts was originally intended to have a medieval theme, explaining the use of wood as a main building material in an otherwise modern high tech setting.