More tidbits for base building, because I've now joined a server and dear god these bases are making my eye twitch.
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The palbox can be moved and it doesn't automatically destroy the base. It apparently destroys some objects (unsure of what, haven't seen it do that yet) and it shoves all the pals that are out into your personal storage (you should take them out manually first though by finding an empty page and filling it up. then you can easily put them all back) Do be quick putting it back though because everything slowly takes damage while outside the base area.
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The palbox footprint is so freakishly large because there is a spawn area directly behind the palbox. That's where the players and pals spawn when fast traveling or summoned. They always spawn at the lowest point below that spawn area. So you can place it five stories up with the spawn area off the ledge and have people/pals spawn on the first floor. Sounds hilarious, must try in a server.
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The palbox ring is really more of a vertical cylinder of control, not a sphere.
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foundations can be raised and lowered easily if you try to build it as far from your body as you can
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If you need to build a bit over a body of water, build a foundation as LOW as you can go, as far into the water as you can. Build a wall on the water side of the foundation, you can then build two roofs forward into the water and a roof and stairs towards the land. Extend that left and right as much as desired. It can look cludgey, but when every bit of space matters you can easily fit a ranch or farms on it. You can even throw the beds underneath this platform.
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Quarries and lumbermills take priority. Pals seem to do tasks from left to right, so if you have a quarry, they don't do anything to the right of mine, and they don't mine anything but a quarry. Same thing with a lumbermill. 3 pals fill a quarry or lumbermill.
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You don't need quarries and lumbermills, Especially on a server, just leave an area of trees and stone. You can mine boulders and trees for stone and palladium, and wood and fiber. All without a grinder. Yes it makes it slower, but also when everything is gone pals will do other shit while it grows back. Making it superior in many ways to a quarry or lumbermill.
You know what really irks me though? Even if we didn't go green. Those 40,000 jobs are going to vanish. Coal doesn't grow like trees. That mine will empty one day and it's going to get shut down without warning, without any severance packages, the company is just going to run. There will even still be coal in the mine, it's just no longer cheap enough to mine it.
Historically, that's how it happens. Even in this day and age the moment a better mine opportunity is found, they're gone. They make the town dependent on them, they use the town in every way they can, they donate to the schools and municipal water supply, and then they vanish without warning leaving the town in the lurch. Happens with copper, happens with gas, happens with silver and it happens with coal.
At least the green movement will give you a date, a head start, and at least an iota of sympathy.