Here’s a detailed explanation I once wrote:
Others have given great explainations in broad strokes, I’ll go into nitty gritty detail because this stuff can get really confusing and the game doesn’t teach you about it, at all.
Every building piece you place has a decay timer. Connected building pieces shared a decay timer. For example, if you place a foundation, then snap another to it, then snap a wall on one side, all 3 pieces will share the same decay timer.
The decay timer starts at a certain value and it ticks down, second by secon…
Note that the information about official server decay timer cap is outdated, because they changed it from 168 to 240 hours. Everything else is still correct, as far as I know.
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