How to remove an entire mountain?

[TropicalLazerBeams]

Hi friends,
So My CPH started out nestled in pretty much the middle of a mountain, with 2 out of my 4 sides surrounded by pretty high walls. Now that I have to defend a bunch, I want to have a flat area around my base to take advantage of the range of my turrets. What is the best way to remove the mountain all around me? I have been superbuilding it all out, but it gets tedious. Any suggestions?

[Lions_Den]

Auto excavators will cut out a 3x3 area above them once you can make them. Make a bunch of them and place them in a line under the mountain and it will chew through all non ore and machine blocks at a good clip. Once it has finished one row have another row behind ready to receive the power from the first row when you remove them. Keep doing that until you have a flatland around your base.

[pHredric]

An alternative is workfloor excavators, works the same way as Auto excavators, but horizontally.

Or if you are really impatient you could always charge a bomb and detonate it (far, far away from important infrastructure mind you).

I personally like the look of hilly terrain and will try to work around it to keep as much as possible, but as you say, sometimes you just have to tear it down.

[mogamepro]

BFLs are a good option. They clear out a 5x5 area in an unlimited range. Just be careful not to let it hit anything you want to keep, they'll clear out any machines in the way as well.

[mt6767]

If you're not opposed to mods, the MK2 excavator will do that with a single machine, set it and forget it. I use it for just that--cutting a large 64 x 64 area as high as you need. I think the maximum settings are something crazy like 1024W x 1024L x 2048H. You can always use these to clear your space, and then turn them back off if you're wanting to play without mods.

I use these fairly extensively at the beginning of my game to clear space for my main base, as well as all the levels of mining that I need below the ground. It's the best way I know of to shape the world the way you like it.

It also has a function to take out ore, which works wonders for cutting long 3 x 3 shafts for lifts in one pass. Just cut two for my T4 ores from 960 to the surface, all completely clean of ore.

[Lions_Den]

I think the original poster was talking about early game which of all the methods suggested only the workfloor excavators, the autoextractors, mods and by hand are the only methods.

*NOTE* - While using mods, you can't get achievements which means you wont open rush mode or flatland.

[epgeek]

Workfloor excavator powered by as many PTGs as you can manage. Just keep raising it when it completes a full(ish) level. Note they can take some 120pps at full speed, so 40pps will take a while to carve out a floor. Later on, bombs are awesome.

[TropicalLazerBeams]

Cool! Thanks for all the good suggestions! Quick question about mods and achievements while were on the topic, if I enable a mod to clear blocks out, then disable the mod, can I still get achievements afterwards and unlock rush mode?

[epgeek]

Yes, the code only checks for mods when an acheivement condition is met. I don't use mods, so I don't know what the ramifications are for disabling mods after you've created machines/entities/items using mods.

[steveman0]

If you tear down the machine and put it in storage before disabling it the machine will become a useless block that just takes up space. It will function just fine again if reenabled.

If you leave it as a block in the world it will still be there but appear as a research station and tell you that it is a deactivated mod block. When reactivated it'll work again but will have its settings reset.

Overall, no major harm to worry about.

[Sphinx]

Blow it up with a charged explosive if you got the tech, its the fastest way ^^

[MalloryMcGuffin]

Bomb Bomb Bomb Bomb (Level 4 charged explosive) Bomb

Also very good for sand

[CreepyD]

Bomb is ok, but will often still leave you with a lot of mountain to clear.
Workfloor excavators (mk2 to be sure) are best. Minimal setup, slow and steady.
Use some solar panels and batteries at the top and aim power straight down. 1 laser per excavator.
You can stagger the excavators every 3 blocks down and 1 block to the side to allow power down to it.

[MTP]

heeey a little late on the discussion, but I imagine other's will end up here as I did. Just to share my experience: I want to create flatlands from my base to the overminds for ease loot collection, the way I've been doing which seems to be working gr8 is.
1 - superbuild a flat platform, that way you get rid of all those valleys and holes.
2 - after step 1 you realize there really isnt all that much mountain to move
3 - blow the big ones with nukes and finesh the rest by hand XD

you could also carry around a turbine and some fuel to power some tools for you