Expansion

In real-time strategy games, an expansion is a secondary base located at a resource node with the express purpose of increasing your resource intake. As with most RTS games, as one's resource intake grows, one can produce more units at once- and thus, will be able to destroy your opponent easier. Most maps will have one or more expansion sites to peruse once you have the spare resources to invest in the creation of such a secondary base.

While expansions are very useful, they are also often vulnerable to attack. These resource nodes are often located in more open territory than the primary bases, and even when terrain such as uncrossable territory or high ground poses a barrier, they do not often possess the space necessary to construct defenses. Thus, while an attack on an opponent's primary base can be a fatal stroke, destroying his expansions can be considered the equivalent of hamstringing him- it is seldom as difficult an attack to complete successfully, and can severely hamper him later on in the game.

In the world of gaming, expansions are extensions to the main product. With a CCG, an expansion entails adding to the available card base, providing for the construction of new deck ideas or the reinforcement and strengthening of old ones; with computer games, the additions range from new maps or areas to new character classes and races. As expansions usually just consist of adding on to current code or reworking things with different methods, they are often far easier to produce, playtest, and market than an entirely different game- and as such, are a company's best bet on milking the cash cow of a popular game as long as they possibly can.

Ex*pan"sion (?), n. [L. expansio: cf. F. expansion.]

1.

The act of expanding or spreading out; the condition of being expanded; dilation; enlargement.

2.

That which is expanded; expanse; extend surface; as the expansion of a sheet or of a lake; the expansion was formed of metal.

The starred expansion of the skies. Beattie.

3.

Space thought which anything is expanded; also, pure space.

Lost in expansion, void and infinite. Blackmore.

4. Com.

Enlargement or extension of business transaction; esp., increase of the circulation of bank notes.

5. Math.

The developed result of an indicated operation; as, the expansion of (a + b)2 is a2 + 2ab + b2.

6. Steam Ebgine

The operation of steam in a cylinder after its communication with the boiler has been cut off, by which it continues to exert pressure upon the moving piston.

7. Nav. Arch.

The enlargement of the ship mathematically from a model or drawing to the full or building size, in the process of construction.

Ham. Nav. Encyc.

⇒ Expansion is also used adjectively, as in expansion joint, expansion gear, etc.

Expansion curve, a curve the coordinates of which show the relation between the pressure and volume of expanding gas or vapor; esp. Steam engine, that part of an indicator diagram which shows the declining pressure of the steam as it expands in the cylinder. -- Expansion gear Stream Engine. a cut-off gear. See Illust. of Link motion. -- Automatic expansion gear ∨ cut-off, one that is regulated by the governor, and varies the supply of steam to the engine with the demand for power. -- Fixed expansion gear, ∨ Fixed cut-off, one that always operates at the same fixed point of the stroke. -- Expansion joint, ∨ Expansion coupling Mech. & Engin., a yielding joint or coupling for so uniting parts of a machine or structure that expansion, as by heat, is prevented from causing injurious strains; as by heat, is prevented from causing injurious strains; as: (a) A side or set of rollers, at the end of bridge truss, to support it but allow end play. (b) A telescopic joint in a steam pipe, to permit one part of the pipe to slide within the other. (c) A clamp for holding a locomotive frame to the boiler while allowing lengthwise motion. -- Expansion valve Steam Engine, a cut-off valve, to shut off steam from the cylinder before the end of each stroke.

© Webster 1913.