What is floor?

[jabbywocks]

I attempted to build my base's floor out of slabs but, apparently, the game doesn't consider that floor and now all my crafting machines and storage will only place floating above the "floor".

Can floors only be made from the standard square block? This seems extremely limited, considering all the shapes we can make.

[hallow, dmitri!]

If you want things to sit neatly on top then you have to use full blocks. Only use the thinner slabs if you don't plan on placing anything on top unless you don't care about the gap.

[jabbywocks]

Originally posted by rygarg:

If you want things to sit neatly on top then you have to use full blocks. Only use the thinner slabs if you don't plan on placing anything on top unless you don't care about the gap.

I wish I realized this before making the entire floor out of forged steel. It's gonna take a while to undo :/

[hallow, dmitri!]

Use creative mode to fix it and get the dev hammer that obliterates the blocks in one hit.

[Crater Creator]

Originally posted by jabbywocks:

Originally posted by rygarg:

If you want things to sit neatly on top then you have to use full blocks. Only use the thinner slabs if you don't plan on placing anything on top unless you don't care about the gap.

I wish I realized this before making the entire floor out of forged steel. It's gonna take a while to undo :/

Oof, that’s rough. I sympathize.

To expand on what rygarg said, what’s going on is that a block, no matter its shape, will occupy the entire voxel of space. You can’t put a block on top that’s embedded partway into the voxel underneath, even if there’s a lot of visible space to occupy. This is the fundamental nature of a voxel game, generally speaking.

What you can do, if for whatever reason you wanted to use slabs (plates), is use advanced rotation so they’re aligned to the top of the voxel. Then the blocks placed on the voxel above them would ‘rest’ on the flat floor. The full blocks (cubes) are just a convenient way to insure you’re filling up the entire volume of the voxel on all sides.

Edit: Also, wooden frames are a cheap, removable way to prototype the shape of your base, before moving to more expensive materials like steel. You can even copy the block shape(s) directly from your prototype with the radial menu.

[Reeva!]

Originally posted by jabbywocks:

I attempted to build my base's floor out of slabs but, apparently, the game doesn't consider that floor and now all my crafting machines and storage will only place floating above the "floor".

Can floors only be made from the standard square block? This seems extremely limited, considering all the shapes we can make.

Most blocks if placed in a very strange way, like a thin square plate facing towards the ground, it will float. You did the opposite, you placed a half block (slab) facing upwards, and it does count as floor, you can walk on it, however it's taking up the full space of the block it's occupying, so you can't place anything in the other half block that you're walking on.

If you want to still build a base out of slabs, specifically the floor, this is a little weird-champ but you can hold R (reload button) and select "Advanced" whilst holding the building block in your hand, and rotate the slab so that it's facing downwards. Then you can build inside your base, though, your base will be floating. Dw, as far as I know it's as stable as any other base, even if it's not visually touching the ground, it technically is.

[Crater Creator]

Originally posted by Naomi_chi:

Dw, as far as I know it's as stable as any other base, even if it's not visually touching the ground, it technically is.

This is correct. Shape and rotation don’t affect structural integrity… as much as I’d like them to, in order to reduce floating base nonsense.

[Reeva!]

Originally posted by Crater Creator:

Originally posted by Naomi_chi:

Dw, as far as I know it's as stable as any other base, even if it's not visually touching the ground, it technically is.

This is correct. Shape and rotation don’t affect structural integrity… as much as I’d like them to, in order to reduce floating base nonsense.

That just makes me want to test if I can place a forge upside down in all corners of my base outside to make a weird looking rocket base, and I'll have the tiniest almost invisible pixel of a block holding it all together just for a screenshot.

[Crater Creator]

Originally posted by Naomi_chi:

Originally posted by Crater Creator:

This is correct. Shape and rotation don’t affect structural integrity… as much as I’d like them to, in order to reduce floating base nonsense.

That just makes me want to test if I can place a forge upside down in all corners of my base outside to make a weird looking rocket base, and I'll have the tiniest almost invisible pixel of a block holding it all together just for a screenshot.

I don’t think advanced rotation is enabled for forges. But I’m sure you could come up with something convincing.

I guess that stuff can be clever, but I’d rather have a SI system where blocks have to be touching at least a little to be connected, and then people can go into the POI editor with SI off if they want to make crazy gravity-defying builds for the lulz.

[jabbywocks]

Originally posted by Crater Creator:

Edit: Also, wooden frames are a cheap, removable way to prototype the shape of your base, before moving to more expensive materials like steel. You can even copy the block shape(s) directly from your prototype with the radial menu.

I definitely learned, after this, to test using frame shapes before putting the final build.

I had found a stack of like 400 or so steel blocks and, since we were starting a 2nd base, decided to fortify the top floor in steel. I used R + Copy to copy what was already being used as "floor". I'm learning now that a lot of building designs are impossible to do as a player without having dev powers/god mode.

[zaphodikus]

After a few sandbox builder titles, you work out what thin walls are good for, they are good for making ceilings. I for one am not a fan of building great masterpieces in survival mode in sandbox, switching to creative/god gets you what you want without frustration, and then if the game allows, switch back into survival mode.

Good that you learn how to compose things and place blocks that match near each other in ways that link up. it's very fiddly, but you do get better over time.
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2014683052
Not my work, but an example of pure survival mode building.

[jabbywocks]

Originally posted by zaphodikus:

After a few sandbox builder titles, you work out what thin walls are good for, they are good for making ceilings. I for one am not a fan of building great masterpieces in survival mode in sandbox, switching to creative/god gets you what you want without frustration, and then if the game allows, switch back into survival mode.

Good that you learn how to compose things and place blocks that match near each other in ways that link up. it's very fiddly, but you do get better over time.
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2014683052
Not my work, but an example of pure survival mode building.

Oh wow! I'd never get that good at it. My base looks like a mish-mashed monstrosity on the outside. But at least the inside looks decent enough, despite floating appliances.

Is is possible to open creative mode while playing on a server hosted by someone else?

[AnAngelOfDeath]

Originally posted by jabbywocks:

Originally posted by zaphodikus:

After a few sandbox builder titles, you work out what thin walls are good for, they are good for making ceilings. I for one am not a fan of building great masterpieces in survival mode in sandbox, switching to creative/god gets you what you want without frustration, and then if the game allows, switch back into survival mode.

Good that you learn how to compose things and place blocks that match near each other in ways that link up. it's very fiddly, but you do get better over time.
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2014683052
Not my work, but an example of pure survival mode building.

Oh wow! I'd never get that good at it. My base looks like a mish-mashed monstrosity on the outside. But at least the inside looks decent enough, despite floating appliances.

Is is possible to open creative mode while playing on a server hosted by someone else?

Only if they have it enabled on the server.