The map you are not watching still ticks

Every loaded map is a storyteller target. Food falls, fires spread, and raids roll on the outpost while the camera sits on the first base. Jump with the colonist bar at the top of the screen. Starvation and missing-bed alerts scan every player home. The raid letter still fires on the map you are not looking at.

A second home does not get New Colony Optimism. That +10 for 8 days, then +5 hope for 8 days, only applies when you have no player home yet. Founding a branch while the first base still stands skips the mood cushion.

Home west, outpost east, caravan on the road

Raise Maximum number of colonies, then Settle

The game is built for one player home. Options → Gameplay → Maximum number of colonies defaults to 1. The slider runs 1 to 5. Moving it above 1 shows the experimental warning: split focus, extra events, and more CPU. You can change it in an active save.

1. Move the slider to at least 2.
2. On the first map, Form caravan. Send a builder and someone who can fight. See the caravan packing notes.
3. Walk to a legal tile. Click Settle.
4. Colonists drop in an open area of at least 600 cells (outdoors counts). Roof, beds, table, food, then a compact hub if you mean to stay.

Settle stays grey for a named reason

Pack 1.6 nutrition per adult colonist per day

A baseline adult burns 1.6 nutrition per day. A simple meal is 0.9 and starts rotting in 4 days. A packaged survival meal is 0.9 and does not rot. Pemmican is 0.05 nutrition, 70 days to rot, 0.018 kg each. Four adults for five days need 32 nutrition: 36 simple meals, or 36 survival packs, or 640 pemmican (about 11.5 kg). Count the walk back.

Four adults, five days each way: 64 nutrition.

Raids hit that map's wealth

Storyteller threat points for a player home use items + half of buildings + pawns on that map. A steel dump at the mine is wealth. A tiny outpost with two pawns and a shelf gets small raids. The first fortress still gets large ones. Both can fire on the same day because each map is its own target.

A killbox at home does not cover the outpost. Put a door, a roof, and a hiding spot before you leave. Park the first rooms on a short walk like the kitchen chain: table, then stored meals, then beds.

Camp, Settle, or gravship

Gravship landing creates a home without the Settle button, so it can pass the slider. That map still counts the next time a caravan tries to Settle. Two maps also mean two simulations. If the save stutters, see loading and sim cost.

Four tiles is close enough to cost goodwill

Settling within 4 tiles of another faction base warns you. Every 15 days the game applies proximity goodwill: −30 at 2 tiles, −20 at 3, −10 at 4, 0 at 5. Permanent enemies still sit on that curve. Biotech adds a pollution confirm when the tile is smoggy. Beds and dining on the new map still follow room impressiveness — a dirt shack is a mood hit, not a free outpost.

Inspection before you form the caravan

• Slider. Options → Gameplay → Maximum number of colonies at least 2. Cap 5.
• Tile. Not adjacent. Not occupied. Arrival area will be ≥ 600 cells.
• Food. 1.6 nutrition per adult per day, including the walk back. Survival packs for the road.
• People. One builder, one fighter, enough to keep the first map alive.
• First night. Roof, two beds, a table, stored meals. Door walk-through cells empty.
• Watch. Colonist bar jump. The outpost still gets its own raids.

Abandon, console, multiplayer

Caravan, hub, kitchen, killbox

The older second-colony how-to is the enable-and-mods walkthrough. Pack the trip with the caravan page. Drop a compact hub and a clean kitchen before you leave. If you are still learning the basics, see the beginner page.