The yard is RIDICULOUSLY *SMALL*

[Livia]

I just finished expanding and I had no idea that was the end. Why is the yard SO SMALL, *especially* when you've gone to all this effort to five us the AMAZING ability to make our own, unique homes!? My yard is full with just the home and the machines - there's no room to have a bunch of plants nicely and there's certainly no way I can get in all the animal pens. What a huge disappointment. Why would you make the area SO MUCH smaller that Portia's yard? I thought it would at least expand over the entire blank area, but it's about half of that.

How are folks getting everything in their yard? Do you all have tiny homes? I just finished building a big, fancy home with lots of rooms - it takes just under half my yard, as I was sure I'd have WAY more space in the end for other things.

Depressing.

[Psyringe]

The complaint comes up occasionally, and the devs have said that they are looking into ways to allow bigger sizes. There does seem to be enough space on the map for at least two more expansions, though some resource spawn points may have to be relocated.

That said, I didn't have a problem fitting all 3 barn buildings, 20 dew collectors, 90 farm plots, and 1-4 instances of each machine into my yard. I also expanded my house to the maximum room size and then added three more stories on top. And I have room to spare. I could fit more machines, but there really is no need - even the existing ones aren't fully utilized with producing the things that I need for the commissions, and producing goods to sell makes no sense with the current price structure.

I could also build an annex to my house, but I don't see the need either when the topmost two stories of my existing house are still empty. But if I wanted to expand it, just to make it look more impressive, then the room would be there. And if not - I could free 180 more tiles simply by scrapping the dew collectors, which need a lot of space, but are only being used as a backup.

Another option to have more space for machines, is to build your ground floor in a thin L-shape, and then expand to the full room size on the floors above that. That gives you a bigger ground area to utilize, but personally I wouldn't use it since looking at such a house would destroy my immersion. I guess I could build a pillar in the unsupported corner to make it more believable, if such an object exists.

So there are definitely ways to utilize the existing space efficiently, fit everything you need, and have room to spare.

[Woargh]

+1 for a bigger yard! I was surprised when I bought the last upgrade. I was sure there would be at least 1-2 more. Its not impossible with the current space, but as someone who spend a long time on my Portia yard, I would love a big space to play with! Especially now with the new house system ^_^

[Bobucles]

There is a nice fenced area next to the train tracks that has nothing in it. Is that for new townsfolk, or will it be an expansion point for the builder?

[Psyringe]

Originally posted by Bobucles:

There is a nice fenced area next to the train tracks that has nothing in it. Is that for new townsfolk, or will it be an expansion point for the builder?

Not sure. Given that that features like a barn or a greenhouse are coming, it would make sense, but I don't think any plans for that area have been announced so far. So we can only speculare. The area is slanted though (if we're talking about the same area, up the mountain behind the sandfishing hole).

By the way, I do think with a barn, a greenhouse, and perhaps even more buildings coming, I might eventually run out of space on my "space-efficient" yard as well. ;)

[Nishi Kinuyo]

Well, with the workshop I submitted for the contest, I still got 8 civil furnaces, 4 civil grinders, 4 civil cutters, 2 forging machines, 2 tailors, 1 jewelry, 2 civil recycers, 1 ore refiner, 1 relic restoration, 1 generator, 1 blender, 1 cooking station, a drying rack, some fun decorations (2 planters, a swing, sunscreen, chair and table) and a bunch of farm plots.
https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachments/793376729502056468/991644474100949002/SandRock_2022-06-29_11-59-05_0.png

No barn, coop or hutch yet since I'm not really interested in that bit yet.

And around christmas we should be getting the update that adds the factory, so that should clear up the yard a bit.

[Woargh]

Originally posted by Nishi Kinuyo:

Well, with the workshop I submitted for the contest, I still got 8 civil furnaces, 4 civil grinders, 4 civil cutters, 2 forging machines, 2 tailors, 1 jewelry, 2 civil recycers, 1 ore refiner, 1 relic restoration, 1 generator, 1 blender, 1 cooking station, a drying rack, some fun decorations (2 planters, a swing, sunscreen, chair and table) and a bunch of farm plots.
https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachments/793376729502056468/991644474100949002/SandRock_2022-06-29_11-59-05_0.png

No barn, coop or hutch yet since I'm not really interested in that bit yet.

And around christmas we should be getting the update that adds the factory, so that should clear up the yard a bit.

It looks really nice! But for us who are intersted in the animals and other building, the yard quickly feels very small :p I would love to be able to use lots of decorations and make it pretty ^_^

[Poptart]

The space doesn't feel large enough unless you'd like your house to be a single box. Can you fit everything? Sort of. You can Tetris your way into a very successful homestead. Is it aesthetically pleasing? It's a stretch to say yes.

It's more of a matter of one's play style. If you include the animal structures, farming, the large furniture items available only for the outdoors ( swings, umbrellas, pergola, ect ), it's just going to be claustrophobic if you manage to fit it all. This doesn't include a stable that's coming down the line.

[Edgar Allan Hoe]

Agree, and there's honestly not enough space around the current yard that looks useable to me. The yard in Portia I recall being much much larger.
Also... not totally a fan of being one of the only two buildings across the train tracks, and the train tracks being right at my front door. I dunno about you guys but I get hit by the train more than I find acceptable lol.
I guess it's necessary to be on the outskirts of town to be near the resource nodes and close to the ruins, but it just doesn't look like there's gonna be as much more space there as people are saying.

[Edgar Allan Hoe]

Originally posted by Nishi Kinuyo:

Well, with the workshop I submitted for the contest, I still got 8 civil furnaces, 4 civil grinders, 4 civil cutters, 2 forging machines, 2 tailors, 1 jewelry, 2 civil recycers, 1 ore refiner, 1 relic restoration, 1 generator, 1 blender, 1 cooking station, a drying rack, some fun decorations (2 planters, a swing, sunscreen, chair and table) and a bunch of farm plots.
https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachments/793376729502056468/991644474100949002/SandRock_2022-06-29_11-59-05_0.png

No barn, coop or hutch yet since I'm not really interested in that bit yet.

And around christmas we should be getting the update that adds the factory, so that should clear up the yard a bit.

Cute! I like your half-timbered look.
I also don't have the animal buildings yet. I struggle to be interested in them, but if I bought them, it'd be hard to find room.
I remember the reason that I bought them in Portia was because I had so much extra space in my yard that I was like "why not?"

[Endora]

I would realy like to get a home in town to decorate and mantain the workshop just as a work place. Even so, with so many animals structures it's clear that we need more space.

[Poptart]

Originally posted by Edgar Allan Hoe:

Also... not totally a fan of being one of the only two buildings across the train tracks, and the train tracks being right at my front door. I dunno about you guys but I get hit by the train more than I find acceptable lol.
I guess it's necessary to be on the outskirts of town to be near the resource nodes and close to the ruins, but it just doesn't look like there's gonna be as much more space there as people are saying.

My first character in Sandrock would've realistically had a VERY short story because of that train. Hilariously, it dragged me underneath it all the way to the station. I should've looked both ways before crossing those tracks, but I wasn't expecting it back so soon.

There does appear to be enough room for two more expansions, three at the absolute max. By the time you could afford those expansions, I'm not sure you'd really notice the absence of grasses / early resource materials in that immediate area. There are vasts amounts of space that just seem... very empty all over the current map.

[Knottypine]

Something to think about is there are a couple more things they have planned, I think a factory and greenhouse. Having the home editing options is a nice thing, but if you're the kind of player that would like to partake in everything available as far as customising your plot of land, I think it's going to be difficult to arrange everything without just going with a much smaller home. Having more space available is a must IMHO, or allow us to purchase another plot of land somewhere else so building everything is a more accessible option.

[JVC]

The devs are aware that players want more yard space.

[Livia]

Thanks for all the replies.

DAMN Nishi Kinuyo - that house is NICE! I don't know when I get all those features unlocked (don't spoil, please), but I can't wait!! And I CAN have a balcony! I did just realize I can have more than one exterior door, but I didn't think to play with that yet. Might as well wait until I have some more decorating option though. SO EXCITED to unlock this stuff!!!!! My current house is so sad and ugly.

I didn't think to try more than two stories, honestly. I am not a fan of the stairs at present because of the limits on the max room size and the size of the stairs. Course, I haven't played much because I am clearly at the most basic stage, so it's not been much fun to bother too much.

I like to have an office space in my house, then living room, place for kitchen (in theory), and bedroom. Cause I could, I added hall and second bedroom so far.

Decorating the yard and interior of my home in Portia is one of my favourite things to do. I do like to have all the buildings (it's handy for one thing) and a large garden (again, useful). Every time I play, I do something different with the yard because it's fun.

I want a big house because I enjoy the building aspects, but, yeah, gonna need more yard for all those animal buildings, and I like to have areas of the yard that are just nice and decorative.

Glad to hear this is a matter they know we want. Seems pretty easy. Even without making any changes to spawn points, there's still a big chunk of empty space between the current limit and the first resources. Portia had trees right on the fence, so why not? Course, even then I think the space is too small, but then the house gives more options to have things inside too in terms of relics and such.

Wish we could put items from the yard on top of the house too. Have flat areas on the roof or balconies where you can place items, not just the home decorations.

[jgottwerth1]

I'm with you on this. I *somehow* managed to put all the barn buildings in the yard, but I can't add anything else to the yard without making it messy/not easily walkable. I also want to expand my house, but kinda hard to do that with all the barn buildings. So yes, I hope extra yard space is to come. (OR better yet, implement the factory that saved us space in the yard so we can fit a lot inside).