soil

[faltor]

been watching utube videos on soil collection..but in game it is different..so how does one get soil?

[XLjedi]

Your base in every solar system should be on the planet with construction area closest to 100%. The initial pod-world you always start on is not your home.

[JeanDeaux]

You guys are thinking typical game play, I'm working on the "Determination" and "I saw this in a movie once" achievements and having already collected over 5 mil units of soil, i'm not even halfway yet and my fingers be hurtin'.

So yes, JoSmith, I am doing something extreme and paving over an entire water world.

[josmith7]

I got those - I just made lots more foundation and paved over a couple of rocky worlds - I forget which type, but they had lots of highlands, in order to get the soil to pave over the water world.

Harvesting that much soil just by placing buildings would be very annoying.
Though blueprinting an array of buildings could let you cover a world in them far quicker than individual clicking - because you can build a larger blueprint by pasting down a couple copies of a smaller one, then repeat until you've got an enormous one.

Still, if chasing those achievements I'd recommend just making and deploying stupidly large amounts of foundation on multiple worlds -- its way less clicking.

[JeanDeaux]

Yep, I'm already considering that, but I still have to put down 80k on this waterworld.

[XLjedi]

Originally posted by JeanDeaux:

Coming here to see if there was a better way than this, placing a bunch of buildings to get soil only to pick them back up.

So while this game heavily shines on handy tools and features, here's an area it just lacks. There is a foundation tool that allows you to flatten a large swath of land, but that requires materials and can't be packed up again.

What we need here is a mass delete tool OR a mass bulldoze/level tool. My mouse (and quite frankly finger) is getting worn out placing and picking up all these buildings.

Dev's, please add some useful feature here.

Area functions for delete and foundations is already a thing. Blueprints may also suffice for leveling ground and Area Delete to pickup whatever you built.

If your finger hurts, it suggests your'e clicking on items one-by-one.

[JeanDeaux]

Originally posted by XLjedi:

Area functions for delete and foundations is already a thing. Blueprints may also suffice for leveling ground and Area Delete to pickup whatever you built.

If your finger hurts, it suggests your'e clicking on items one-by-one.

So that would be a feature I haven't found yet, the area deletion and is in fact what I've been asking for. How about some help on that feature?

Ah, think I found what you're talking about, the Grid option under the delete. +/- to resize... it's better than one at a time, so thanks for that tip.

[XLjedi]

Originally posted by JeanDeaux:

Originally posted by XLjedi:

Area functions for delete and foundations is already a thing. Blueprints may also suffice for leveling ground and Area Delete to pickup whatever you built.

If your finger hurts, it suggests your'e clicking on items one-by-one.

So that would be a feature I haven't found yet, the area deletion and is in fact what I've been asking for. How about some help on that feature?

Ah, think I found what you're talking about, the Grid option under the delete. +/- to resize... it's better than one at a time, so thanks for that tip.

With the area delete, you can just click drag around to "paint-erase" larger areas. I have a blueprint with a bunch of batteries that I can wallpaper with whereever I want to level the ground. Smelters would work just as well.

I had over a thousand hours logged before I paid any attention to the Area Delete.
https://steamcommunity.com/app/1366540/discussions/0/3809530841661696551/

[Rekal]

Originally posted by JeanDeaux:

You guys are thinking typical game play, I'm working on the "Determination" and "I saw this in a movie once" achievements and having already collected over 5 mil units of soil, i'm not even halfway yet and my fingers be hurtin'.

From my experience, the fastest and easiest way to get soil pile is from snow and ice worlds (edit: Ice Field Gelisol) with foundations. I take a stack of 1000 foundations (more if you're making multiple stops) and wave around the foundation tool at a grid size of 1x1 on all the built up snow mounds. On the snow and ice worlds their is usually very little water exposed which means no locations that need filled in which means all the terrain variation is above the foundation level. The mounds are fairly easy to see while stomping around.

The grid size of 1x1 means the foundations go out slower and thus last you longer. However they still snag the soil from the grid you placed it on and all the grids around it since the ground has to smooth down to the new height. Much easier on your finger than placing and picking up buildings constantly. You're already producing all the foundation for the achievement so might as well divert some of it.

You could also achieve it naturally if you build your factories on the snow and ice worlds. It'd just take longer to get there.

[Zaflis]

A little tip, you can drag and draw a long line of buildings at once with a single click.
Similarly you can erase all those buildings with a single click-drag by changing the delete mode.

A line of constructors (assemblers?) is best to use imo, they are wider in other dimension than the wide chests.