My ESP8266 order arrived in one piece (thankfully, since they just sent it in a standard paper envelope...).

Just waiting on the Microchip PIC16LF1824, which should arrive tomorrow and then I can get to work on using that to create each node. The PIC16LF1824 will store position data in EEPROM which configures the ESP8266 on startup and will have an easy to use serial interface that you just input the position parameters into. This could then be connected to a bluetooth module to allow for easy configuration.

Edit: PIC16LF1824's arrived today.