How to level the ground?

[Eternie]

Just started playing tonight. I figured there should be a shovel to level ground; is it missing from the game?
I made the workbench and spotted that there are a couple of tools scyth and something else and that to make them I would need the furnace and anvil to make these.

However without level ground the anvil is almost not findable and all the craft stations I have now placed will all be at different levels.

We should be able to level ground somehow ... even if it is with a wooden shovel that wears out. Something to start with

Any hints or tips appreciated

[bluegodsmack]

you can use the rake to level the ground

[Eternie]

Is that still made on anvil ? Thanks Blue

[Lyanna Dreth]

Make a few blocks of stone or whatever; lay them on the ground to level it. Then pick up your craft stations (hold F key to do so), and replace where you want them. That's how I usually start. Or you can cheat - type GM 1 in the console command (press key to left of numbers - `¬ or similar) and then you can access F5 where there is a levelling command...

Oh, and just a note - you can NOT retrieve the smelter - not yet, anyway, so don't place that until you have flat land.

Have fun and good luck.

[zfoxfire]

I start out with building a workbench and then a block bench before I build a furnace. You can place a few blocks down and place the furnace ontop. Then when you can make your anvil and rake, level the terrain around the furnace and finish the rest of your foundation. We're still waiting on "primitive tools" to fill the gap of going bare handed to iron tools. When that's implemented then you can probably craft a basic wooden rake and start leveling your land before you get around to having to smelt ore

Eventually it should be possible to recover stone from a furnace when you destroy it. Not sure when that will happen. But typically if you do a lot of mining (looking for gold and mithril or digigng down to Hell) you'll accumulate so much stone that it wont matter much anyways. Its liike how you end up with chests of useless cobblestone in minecraft ;)

[TJ the HedgeScout]

Rake for dirt, sledgehammer for stone.
Left click with the rake to flatten downwards, right click to flatten upwards. (sledgehammer doesnt have a flatten upwards ability)

[Cik]

They might introduce a shovel next year.

[Eternie]

Wow thanks for all these tips, Lyandreth, zfoxfire and TJ the HedgeScout
I have just finished placing stone blocks under all the crating stations that ended up, up in the air after levelling the area. Being able to use F will be handy.

Being able to flatten down and flatten up would be excellent on both dirt and stone.

The hard part seems when you start and need to learn how to use everything, as always in building survival games.

I noticed water holes don't seem to like being expanded, I had just tried sloping a path down into the water and the water doesn't follow the land level.

[Mardoin69]

Nope. Water doesn't have physics yet. And, according to the developer--Red51--that will be a while into the future before it is addressed due to the amount of work to be done in applying it within the game code.