What are beacons?
Beacons are pulsating orbs that float above the map (usually) and minimap to draw your attention to a specific location or object.
<pic of oil res or artifact on map, plus minimap>
You can right-click a beacon on the minimap to instantly scroll to that location on the 3D map. Or, if you've got units selected, you can left click on the minimap to send them to that location.
On the 3D map, you can click a flashing beacon to stop it flashing! It will still be visible, both on the 3D map and the minimap, but it won't flash any more.
Blue beacons
These are used to highlight oil resources.
<pic>
Select a truck or combat engineer and then click on the oil resource to build an oil derrick on top of it. Also, make sure you have one power generator for every 4 oil derricks you build, otherwise the derricks will stop working.
Red beacons
These are the most common beacon, used to highlight where the enemy is or what the enemy just attacked:
<pic>
In all game modes, they are used to highlight which of your units of buildings was just attacked. In this specific scenario, the beacon only appears on the minimap.
In scripted missions, such as Campaigns, they are used to highlight the location of enemy bases or places to investigate.
In multiplayer games they are used to highlight a map location for your allies (see "Placing beacons" below).
Green beacons
These are the rarest of the three beacon colours. They indicate the presence of technology artifacts:
<pic>
Select a tank or cyborg and then click on the artifact to collect it. Once collected you'll get a message letting you know what was found, and if it's something of use it will appear in the list of available technologies to research when you click on a research laboratory.
Placing beacons
In skirmish and multiplayer games, beacons are used to mark a map location for your allies:
- Indicate a group of enemy units when you need help to defeat them
- Indicate a factory, power gen or research laboratory that hasn't been upgraded
The default keyboard shortcut for placing beacons is: Alt + H
- Beacons are only shown to your allies
- You can only place one beacon at a time (as a human player) – if you place a new beacon the old one will be removed.
- Beacons last for about a minute and then disappear.
After placing a beacon, you should send an In-game Chat message to let your allies know why you placed it. This is particularly important if your allies are AI (bots).
This encyclopaedia contains lots of spoilers - you should play through the campaigns first before reading too much here!