Workarounds for Base Building problems

[Rexxer]

There are several non-intuitive bugs with base-building in NMS. I'll list some and how to get around them. Feel free to list other base building issues and solutions, if you have any.

(1) The terrain resets when you leave the system and return. That means you can't build underground, at all. Even if you build on a flat surface, rocks and grass will pop up in your base. And you can't use the terrain manupulator indoors. You'll have to deconstruct a wall or two to blow out the dirt. A more serious side-effect of this problem is that if your teleporter is buried, you sometimes portal into the terrain, potentially getting stuck. Then you'd have to reload to your last save to get out of it...losing whatever progress you made since your last save. Much easier is just to build everything in the air. Build bases elevated.

(2) Basic building materials (concrete, wood, or metal components) and modular rooms don't snap together at all EXCEPT with modular corridors. Modular corridors can connect basic materials with modular structures.

(3) Modular items (cuboid rooms and storage containers) don't always snap together equivalently. By this I mean, you can't always get storage containers to fit with modular cube rooms even though they theorhetically should go together. For example, if you place a storage container on the ground, you can immediately get other containers to snap to its side no problem. But if you snap the container first to a modular cube or place it on a concrete slab, you suddenly cannot snap the remaining containers together.

This is why you often see awkward integrations of storage containers in glass cube bases on community missions, the most common solution being to separate the containers by one cube length. This is not necessary unless you happen to like running greater distances from one container to another. The glass and cuboid rooms will almost always snap to a container, but not the other way around. So when building a base, position your storage containers first.

What I do is use cheap solid cubes to build up to where I want the storage containers to be, then I snap the first container to it. Then, this is important: delete the solid cubes attached to the first container so the storage container is floating mid-air. Then snap all the remaining containers to the first one, or in whatever pattern you want. Then you can easily build cuboid rooms around the floating storage containers. When building a base, place storage containers first. Then build around them.

(4) If you want stairs to your modular base, then build the stairs and platforms FIRST from basic materials. It is easy to position a cuboid room on a concrete slab but horribly difficult to align stairs and platforms to a preexisting cuboid base.

(5) If you don't use cuboid rooms at all, you won't be able to add a galactic terminal to your base. So you must use a cuboid room at least once. But a single cuboid in a basic materials building really looks out of place.

(6) NMS is clearly pushing you to make lots of glass cube bases as they are ridiculously cheap to make. Tetracobalt makes a ton of ionized cobalt in less than 3 seconds, enough to build an entire base with. You get this automatically when you pick up subterranean relics. Pick up 3 relics and boom, you have most of the material for a base in less than 3 seconds. You only need 20 ionized cobalt per cuboid room! Glass is easily made from frostwort crystal which you can pick off the vine on any ice planet, and you can get a full base worth of glass in under a minute after you find a frostwort patch. You need to have the blueprint first, however..I think you get that from a base scientist quest. I'd probably do that quest line first. Glass will make your bases so much faster and cheaper to make.

On the other hand, regular cuboid rooms are ridiculuously overpriced: 200 pure ferrite which takes a lot of time to mine...probably several minutes for just one cube.

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In summary, the order you should build to avoid frustration is: (1) stairs and foundation platorm first (because of terrain creep and to accurately position cuboids), (2) build storage containers second, using cheap solid cubes to model the desired position in the air, (3) bulk out your cuboid room space around the storage containers last. For more dramatic hybird constructions you can use modular corridors to cleanly connect basic material buildings with modular room constructions.

[Mr. Bufferlow]

For stairs- the individual piece section stairs work best. (metal, concrete, wood) Never have any real problems using the stairs after the fact when building with the individual pieces.

You can intermingle the various building compenents even though they do not snap, but you have to just get them as close to each other as possible. Always best to use a corridor to connect if possible. I tend to intermingle them in floors. First floor might be individual metal piece room and place cuboid rooms on top...the advantage of starting with individual piece is you can get stairs up really easy...two sizes which is extra nice.

[NMSPlayer]

The galactic trade terminal does attach to the square prefab building on the inside. :)

[Rexxer]

Originally posted by karenhamnik:

The galactic trade terminal does attach to the square prefab building on the inside. :)

That's what I said. That is what a cuboid room is. Trade terminals just don't attach to basic materials. That's must be why modular construction items are on a different menu branch than basic materials.

Solid cuboid rooms are very expensive though, by time if you mine them, or by cost if you but the materials. Glass cuboid rooms on the other hand, are ridiculously cheap to builld ... and they look cooler too.

[NMSPlayer]

Originally posted by Rexxer:

Originally posted by karenhamnik:

The galactic trade terminal does attach to the square prefab building on the inside. :)

That's what I said. That is what a cuboid room is. Trade terminals just don't attach to basic materials. That's must be why modular construction items are on a different menu branch than basic materials.

Solid cuboid rooms are very expensive though, by time if you mine them, or by cost if you but the materials. Glass cuboid rooms on the other hand, are ridiculously cheap to builld ... and they look cooler too.

No, not the cuboid rooms, the prefab large square room. Do you consider that one a cuboid? Just like the cylindrical one -- in that menu -- its in a different menu, So idk. But yeah, the big room

[Rexxer]

Originally posted by karenhamnik:

Originally posted by Rexxer:

That's what I said. That is what a cuboid room is. Trade terminals just don't attach to basic materials. That's must be why modular construction items are on a different menu branch than basic materials.

Solid cuboid rooms are very expensive though, by time if you mine them, or by cost if you but the materials. Glass cuboid rooms on the other hand, are ridiculously cheap to builld ... and they look cooler too.

No, not the cuboid rooms, the prefab large square room. Do you consider that one a cuboid? Just like the cylindrical one -- in that menu -- its in a different menu, So idk. But yeah, the big room

I was referring to that as well....they are modulars and in the modular menu branch. Cuboids are one type, square full rooms are the other modular type.

But given how messed up the organization of the construction menus are, the confusion is understandable. Storage containers are also modular building components, but they are not in the modular menu branch. And worse, storage containers are more finicky than other modular components snapping together, requiring you to build storage containers *first* before you add cuboids to them (if you want to position them together that is).

[Rondil62]

Using the mouse wheel to rotate is worthless since it only does 180 degree rotates. It needs to be 90 degrees. Free positioning needs to have controls for all three dimensions. I found the current iteration to be useless. The perspective is full of errors as a placed staircase that looks good when placed is way out of position when viewed. The snap too function screws up often. It definitely needs work. It often wants to place floors and walls anywhere but where you need them. The wall building function needs lower upper and middle walls separated. The software does it on its own and often gets it wrong.

[Brew]

Originally posted by Rexxer:

(5) If you don't use cuboid rooms at all, you won't be able to add a galactic terminal to your base. So you must use a cuboid room at least once. But a single cuboid in a basic materials building really looks out of place.

Galactic terminals can be free-standing, so you can add them to any base. You don't need any cuboids. I have a base with a galactic trade terminal in a room entirely made of wood parts. There are no cuboids in it.

[JTracx]

Originally posted by Brew:

Originally posted by Rexxer:

(5) If you don't use cuboid rooms at all, you won't be able to add a galactic terminal to your base. So you must use a cuboid room at least once. But a single cuboid in a basic materials building really looks out of place.

Galactic terminals can be free-standing, so you can add them to any base. You don't need any cuboids. I have a base with a galactic trade terminal in a room entirely made of wood parts. There are no cuboids in it.

Yes, and easily found by accident by anyone who is new to the game and just trying to place it.
You are responding to a post from...
2018.

A bit has changed since then.

[Grimmslayer73]

Originally posted by Rondil62:

Free positioning needs to have controls for all three dimensions.

It does. Select a part. Press v for free placement mode. Press Shift to change axis.

[Rexxer]

Originally posted by Brew:

Originally posted by Rexxer:

(5) If you don't use cuboid rooms at all, you won't be able to add a galactic terminal to your base. So you must use a cuboid room at least once. But a single cuboid in a basic materials building really looks out of place.

Galactic terminals can be free-standing, so you can add them to any base. You don't need any cuboids. I have a base with a galactic trade terminal in a room entirely made of wood parts. There are no cuboids in it.

Check the date of the post first. At the time of the original post, 2018, what I said was 100% true. You are stating the current state of NMS reality, which in another 5 years may be different still.

Also, the only reason cuboids and basic materials don't mesh well, besides snapping issues, is because they have different proportions. But that leads to a solution since the proportions are fixed, if different. If you remember from your elementary school fractions lesson, you simply have to find a common denominator:
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2130530185
(and if you notice, this artwork was done in 2018, so the proportionality of materials has not changed since then, even if other enhancements have been added so you can rotate and position them more randomly).