StructureController

The StructureController is the heart of a Room. A Room's Room Control Level (RCL) is increased by upgrading a claimed room controller, and will increase the number of Structures available and allow the building of larger Creeps.

Rooms with a controller can be either unowned, claimed or reserved. These rooms form the core of a player's empire, from their first spawn to their lofty empire of 30+ claimed rooms, and many more "remotes."

Source Keeper rooms and highways do not have controllers. SK room Sources have 4000 Energy every 300 ticks and may have Minerals, but are defended. Highways do not have Sources or Minerals. You can still build unowned structures in these rooms, including Roads and Containers.

Actions on a controller

Claiming

Claiming a room controller gives you ownership of the room, and allows you to build OwnedStructures in that room. A player's first action in the game is claiming their first room. Any additional rooms need to be programmatically claimed by a creep. Claiming a room doubles the energy you can harvest from 1500 to 3000 energy per 300 tick cooldown for each Source.

Upgrading

Upgrading a claimed controller is how both Room Control Level and Global Control Level are increased. Upgrading requires Energy to do, at a 1:1 ratio. Once at RCL 8, you can only put 15 Energy per tick into a controller.

Reserving

Reserving a room's controller allows you to maintain control of a room without actually claiming it. This will also prevent other players from claiming the room, and shrink the size of projected respawn/novice zones. Reserving a room controller does not allow you to build OwnedStructures in it, but will increase the energy per Source to the same amounts as claimed rooms. This is important for Remote Harvesting.

Signing

Signing a controller allows you to leave a message on that room until it is either overwritten or removed. You do not need to claim or reserve a controller in order to sign it, and it is possible to sign controllers belonging to other players.

Attacking

During or after combat between players, a player's suitably equipped creeps can attack a controller belonging to another player, downgrading the controller's claim timer by 300 ticks per CLAIM body part, or reservation timer by 1 tick per CLAIM body part. If the controller under attack is claimed, it cannot be upgraded or attacked again for the next 1,000 ticks.

Activate Safe mode

A claimed controller starts with one use of Safe Mode available at RCL 1, and gains another for each additional control level.

Adding additional safe modes

A creep carrying 1000 Ghodium can call generateSafeMode() in range 1 of a controller, and add an additional safe mode to the room.

Enabling PowerCreeps

Power has to be enabled in a room for PowerCreeps to be used. Once a player spawns their first power creep, they can enable power in any room with a controller by using a PowerCreep's enableRoom() while adjacent to it.