Flattening the Ground

[Kropt]

I spent the last 90 min of my life trying to flatten some ground so I can build a basic shack. I shovel one spot, it gets flat. Then another. When I go to the third the first spot that was good is now bad. 90 min? Are you serious? I have TWO good plots only. Why the ♥♥♥♥ do I have to do this? To build a shack? This has been frustrating and a complete halt in my meager progression in the game. How can I make this work? Does this take forever for all players or am I doing something wrong here?

[Siddly]

Originally posted by Stabubad:

I spent the last 90 min of my life trying to flatten some ground so I can build a basic shack. I shovel one spot, it gets flat. Then another. When I go to the third the first spot that was good is now bad. 90 min? Are you serious? I have TWO good plots only. Why the ♥♥♥♥ do I have to do this? To build a shack? This has been frustrating and a complete halt in my meager progression in the game. How can I make this work? Does this take forever for all players or am I doing something wrong here?

It takes forever man thats just how it is, What ido is dig a tunnel of dirt and artifically raise land to make a giant flat spot, it took me 6-7 hours alone to make a 10 x10 tile area and a giant dirt tunnel icould use for storage/home.

[Josh007CL]

Yeah I have the same problem, it takes way too long to flatten out land. I know you can adjust the server settings, I think there is one for terraforming multiplier, but that felt like I was shovelling too fast. The land just needs to be adjusted with digs.

I also feel the recipes are a little unrealistic. I feel like the tiny shack should be a bunch of boards, branches/sticks, and a bunch of "plant fiber" for the roof and no logs.

[Navandis]

I'll try to give you some tips on this, that helped me as well:

- choose the location carefully, some places are far better than others for placing your "base". One very crucial factor is flatness of the ground and I can guarantee you there are plenty of spots with fairly leveled ground. Check for example the east side of the lake or the claw-shaped peninsula in the South-Western part of the mainland.

- remember that there is something called "cascade effect" where if you have one square of land that's higher than the neighbouring ones and you add more dirt on top, it will fall on the sides until the adjacent squares are also at a close level. From my testing the max difference you can have before cascade can happen is 2

- make sure you understand the difference between flatten and lowering/rising. Flattening just makes a square flat (if dirt was added), but won't raise or lower the elevation.

- make sure you don't accidentaly lower/raise elevation of a "wrong" square: it's very easy to click on a neighbouring square rather than the one you wish to. I always lower/raise the square beneath my feet to prevent this.

- work squares in pairs of lowering / rising: by this i mean lower a square 6-7 times, go drop the dirt on a square that needs to risen. This way you will minimize wasted time.

- better tools and being well fed make things much faster.

And last but perhaps most important:

Observe is ALWAYS centered on the square you clicked on, so if you move 5 squares to the left and click Observe on the square you're standing on, you'll see a different output which might make you believe your land got messed up.

[Josh007CL]

Originally posted by Cedenjr:

Originally posted by Stabubad:

I spent the last 90 min of my life trying to flatten some ground so I can build a basic shack. I shovel one spot, it gets flat. Then another. When I go to the third the first spot that was good is now bad. 90 min? Are you serious? I have TWO good plots only. Why the ♥♥♥♥ do I have to do this? To build a shack? This has been frustrating and a complete halt in my meager progression in the game. How can I make this work? Does this take forever for all players or am I doing something wrong here?

It takes forever man thats just how it is, What ido is dig a tunnel of dirt and artifically raise land to make a giant flat spot, it took me 6-7 hours alone to make a 10 x10 tile area and a giant dirt tunnel icould use for storage/home.

I wanted to add to this: I get the game is meant to be realistic, but you can only go so hardcore since people have lives outside a game. You cannot spend 6-7 hours just to flatten some land.

[Siddly]

Originally posted by Josh007CL:

Yeah I have the same problem, it takes way too long to flatten out land. I know you can adjust the server settings, I think there is one for terraforming multiplier, but that felt like I was shovelling too fast. The land just needs to be adjusted with digs.

I also feel the recipes are a little unrealistic. I feel like the tiny shack should be a bunch of boards, branches/sticks, and a bunch of "plant fiber" for the roof and no logs.

The terraforming multiplier is just for tunneling, Not for flattening/digging ground, If you get a high terraforming level and a good quality prim shovel/ metal shovel it goes alot faster.

[Siddly]

Originally posted by Josh007CL:

Originally posted by Cedenjr:

It takes forever man thats just how it is, What ido is dig a tunnel of dirt and artifically raise land to make a giant flat spot, it took me 6-7 hours alone to make a 10 x10 tile area and a giant dirt tunnel icould use for storage/home.

I wanted to add to this: I get the game is meant to be realistic, but you can only go so hardcore since people have lives outside a game. You cannot spend 6-7 hours just to flatten some land.

IT depends on what your doing, I was spending alot of time on it to make it look pretty. The best thing to do is search the map for a giant flat spot so you dont have to do much flattening. Usually you'll find spots like that next to the beach.

[glowpiPe]

Its actualy quite simple. Raise or lower ground, raise or lower it by 0.1
Flatten the ground flattens the tile you aim at to the same level as the one you stand on. 0.1 at the time. If you stand on a tile that is 4 and the one you flatten is 4.9 then you need to flatten it 9 times to have it at the same level and one more to make it flat

if you have a square you want flat. Say 2 by 2.
Lets call them
AB
CD

A B and C is at 4.5
D is at 4.6

Now you stand on C and aim at D. Flatten the groun once to get it to 4.5 and one more time to flatten it. It is now green in the Observe mode.

Now. Stand on D and aim at C and flatten it. After that Aim at B and flatten it. now B C and D are flat

Now finnish off with aiming at A from Either B or C to make all 4 tiles flat at 4.5.

It is simple. Me explaining it.. not so much :p

[Kropt]

I hope this gets modified in the game. The fun is in the actual building imo. Spending so much time with the ground, Im not sure who thought this would be fun or even "realistic". If I wanted that much realistic I would build a castle in my back yard.

[Kropt]

So why did I have "21" on several off the tiles but they said they weren't flat in observe mode? Was I just standing on the wrong tile?

[glowpiPe]

Originally posted by Stabubad:

So why did I have "21" on several off the tiles but they said they weren't flat in observe mode? Was I just standing on the wrong tile?

because you leveled them to the same level. You also need to use flatten ground on them after.

Stand on a 21 tile and flatten on 21 tile adjacent to the one you stand on

You wont really ever need anything else than flatten ground.

Just find a semi flat area. Stand in the middle and aim at a tile. Use flatten ground til you cant anymore. Then stand on the tile you flattened and use flatten ground on all tiles around that. Til you cant anymore. Then you should have a flat + in observe mode. Its really not hard and it doesnt take that much time

[Willa Grey]

Here are a few things that might help.

- Always use Terraforming - Observe mode - It makes it easier to navigate the grid, and it tells you the exact elevation of that tile.
- The color of the numbers in Observe mode represent the difference in elevation in relation to the tile you targeted with the Observe command. Green means closer, red means farther.
- 30 units of dirt/stone/clay/etc. is 0.1 elevation on the terrain. It seems the engine has a value for what exists on each 0.1 section of land. If you drop Rock, then Fertile Soil, then Clay and dig it back up (via the Lower Terrain command) you will get back exactly what you drop.
- Dropping ground material from your inventory places it on the tile on which you're standing, not the one you're targeting.
- If an adjacent tile is 2.0 levels lower, dropping any dirt/stone/etc. will cause it to slide down to that tile. It will continue to slide down until it reaches a cell that is less than 2.0 in difference.
- Tiles in Observe Mode that are green represent flatten tiles, suitable to be built upon. Note that having a series of tiles of the same level is not enough, you need to use the Flatten command, even if it seems to make no change visibly.
- Tiles in Observe mode that are red cannot be changed. This is usually due to either construction or a tunnel. You can change the terrain around it as long as it stays within the 2.0 difference. Currently there is no way to remove structures once they're complete. Keep that in mind.
- Getting ore while tunneling does not give you mining experience. You have to use the Mine command, and it must be on a tunnel surface, wall or floor, not the ground.

These are my observations when tunneling, I need to spend more time confirming these though.

- (unconfirmed) Tunnel floors always in sections of 5.0 elevation. To avoid a tunnel that you need to jump into and out of, start the tunnel by standing on an adjacent tile with an elevation divisible by 5.
- (unconfirmed) The material of a tunnel depends on the material of the tile it was dug from. Digging on a stone surface will produce a stone wall inside the tunnel. I tried making the terrain even on a layer of rock by placing dirt on top, and my tunnel only produced dirt - even though I prospected ore within two cells.
- (unconfirmed) Tunneling up or downward will adjust the target tunnel height by .5 and create a slope on the ground and ceiling of adjacent tunnel sections. This can be done via targeting the wall or the ground from an adjacent tile.
- (unconfirmed) If your tunnel entrance ends up being lower than the ground, causing a need to jump in and out of the tunnel, you can sometimes start tunneling from within towards the exit.
- (unconfirmed) Tunneling into sections of land can sometimes yield multiple piles of resources of different quality. I think this is cause by tunneling into separate sections of land. Not sure on that.

Originally posted by Drojdier:

- make sure you understand the difference between flatten and lowering/rising. Flattening just makes a square flat (if dirt was added), but won't raise or lower the elevation.

Based on my experience, I say that this is wrong. If you try to flatten a tile by standing on a adjacent tile of a lower or higher elevation, it will try to adjust the target tile to match. Either it's the one you're standing on, or the adjacent tiles themselves. I tried to flatten terrain on a hill and it kept lowering the target tile instead.

[dat_potatoe]

Raise or lower a single tile until its the desired elevation.
Set flatten to default.

Stand on that tile and flatten the tile infront of it. This WILL raise and lower the tile to the level of the one you're standing on.

Move to that tile once it is flat, and repeat the process.

A shack requires a 4x4 area. That shouldn't take too long. Southeast of the lake has a large flat valley where most of the work is already done for you.

[Saxxon]

https://lifeisfeudal.com/billing/tutorials.php#basic-12

[Kropt]

Originally posted by dat_potatoe:

Raise or lower a single tile until its the desired elevation.
Set flatten to default.

Stand on that tile and flatten the tile infront of it. This WILL raise and lower the tile to the level of the one you're standing on.

Move to that tile once it is flat, and repeat the process.

A shack requires a 4x4 area. That shouldn't take too long. Southeast of the lake has a large flat valley where most of the work is already done for you.

Very helpful thank you.

[Kropt]

So I finally get the land flat...takes forever, then try to build the shack....can only build a furnace. What the ♥♥♥♥ is going on? Ive been at this ALL day. I have to spend hours trying to find roots to eat so I won't die. What is going on here? Please fix this ♥♥♥♥.