Construction

[Tsanilk]

Is there anywhere that explains how to use this radial construction system? Makes no sense to me. Can't really change anything with the scale option. Or is it not actually active yet? And why would you want to change the "texture" on a block when they already have variety in the build mode?

[AlphaGodith]

the radial menu is just for configuring the specifications of the actual actions. for example, setting how much a single click scales a block by. you want that number big at first so it doesn't take a ton of clicks to make big changes, and then you want it smaller so you can make fine adjustments. the main controls are visible if you hit f1 while holding a block, and include how to scale, move, and rotate the block.

despite the variety of textures, often you want a specific color that isn't available, so you paint it. or, you may change the scale or rotation of a texture to suit your needs. for example, on a build of mine, i wanted a finer 'woven cloth' texture than is available, so i scaled down the texture. there's also the fact that you might want to CHANGE a texture after you've already placed it, without removing and re-placing the block entirely. with the edit command, that's possible.

[Desert Rat]

I've seen several videos on YT discussing construction, but I'm not sure how much detail they go in to. I've been trying to figure out the construction system myself, and it's very confusing. There are a lot of older "tutorials" in the forums, but again, they don't really make things very clear, at least for me.

[AlphaGodith]

i recommend starting simple, just focusing on the most basic controls, like moving a block around and snapping it to others on the grid, and once you are used to that, THEN try turning the grid off, scaling and rotating, and once you're used to THAT, then try surface edit, etc.

explanation of the 'modes' shown in the lower left---

- grid; provides a grid in the world for your objects to snap to, recommend on for beginners but off for advanced (toggled with a single click of 'g')
- collisions; makes object in hand slide around based on its hitbox, as opposed to its center (toggled via radial menu, hold c with a block in your hand)
- surface edit; if the object has an editable surface, it will make your adjustments happen to that surface, instead of the entire object. an advanced feature. (toggled via radial menu, hold c with a block in your hand)
- modular snapping; will make your object snap/stick to other objects (toggled with a single click of enter)
- manual positioning; locks the object in place so you can walk around it and adjust its position more carefully rather than it just going wherever you look (toggled with a single click of right control)

basic controls---

with manual positioning mode OFF;
- move object in space with view/cursor to slide along surfaces (if modular -snapping is on, it will snap to pivot points on other constructions)
- scale by holding shift, then also arrow keys and page up/down
- rotate with arrow keys and page up/down

with manual positioning mode ON;
- move object in space with arrow keys and page up/down (you can walk around freely and it will stay where you left it)
- scale by holding shift, then also arrow keys and page up/down
- rotate by holding right control, then also arrow keys and page up/down

other helpful keys---

- copy the rotation/scale of a block you are looking at onto the one you are holding with INSERT (you can also do this with a paintbrush/roller in hand to copy the COLOR of a block onto it)
- reset the rotation/scale of a block you are holding with BACKSPACE

also note you can change the shape of a block after you have crafted it by right clicking it in your inventory while near a workbench.

[Tsanilk]

I appreciate the response. Much of that doesn't line up with what I've seen, especially an edit option. As far as textures, I tried that too, but it changed nothing. Like I asked there really needs to be an instruction manual. There is no option in the workbench to resize blocks and that radial menu doesn't either. Yet everyone keeps saying it's the construction tool with no other explanation. How is one supposed to know the difference between world or local setting? Don't know who came up with that system but it aint user friendly! I'll keep searching. Another player said we might check for youtube instructions, but don't know if he has yet. Thanks again.

[AlphaGodith]

Originally posted by tsanilk:

I appreciate the response. Much of that doesn't line up with what I've seen, especially an edit option. As far as textures, I tried that too, but it changed nothing. Like I asked there really needs to be an instruction manual. There is no option in the workbench to resize blocks and that radial menu doesn't either. Yet everyone keeps saying it's the construction tool with no other explanation. How is one supposed to know the difference between world or local setting? Don't know who came up with that system but it aint user friendly! I'll keep searching. Another player said we might check for youtube instructions, but don't know if he has yet. Thanks again.

so did you hit f1 while holding a block in hand like i said? that is the instruction manual. the 'edit' option is a console command. you do not resize things at the workbench. keep in mind some tutorials may be for the java version and no longer apply to the unity version of the game.

[Tsanilk]

Thank you Desert Rat, we are far from alone.

[Tsanilk]

No one until you said anything about f1. I'll have to check that out.

[Tsanilk]

Well, unfortunately thats not working. Right shift doesn't resize it. I've tried the scaling thing many times, .25 or 1 or 2 doesn't change anything. I just wanted to build a fence using smaller blocks than the standard and it's a nightmare getting answers about this convoluted "system". You would't believe some of the things I built with the old version.

[AlphaGodith]

Originally posted by tsanilk:

Well, unfortunately thats not working. Right shift doesn't resize it. I've tried the scaling thing many times, .25 or 1 or 2 doesn't change anything. I just wanted to build a fence using smaller blocks than the standard and it's a nightmare getting answers about this convoluted "system". You would't believe some of the things I built with the old version.

did f1 show you the controls or not?

did you try left shift and are you also holding down an arrow key at the same time to tell it which way TO scale?

the radial menu only determines how much it scales by, it doesn't do the actual scaling.

every system takes time to get used to and learn. i recommend going over my messages and the f1 menu again.

[Tsanilk]

I said I tried the right shift to resize like it says in f1 and it didn't change anything. In fact the only thing that works is the page up and down and left right arrows to extend the block.

[LORD_K]

[leftShift]+[arrow keys] to resize selected block in belt.
Have limit for size, minimum and maximum (if I remember, min=0.1 and max.=5, if want out of limit need active creative mode with 'gm 1').
[c] ative radial menu options (i think you know it)
Yes, options is a little confuse for me too.

[Tsanilk]

I see, this is only for creative. I was trying in survival. Thanks.

[Kaeru Gaman]

it's also for survival. you can build in survival.

do you hold the block in the active item slot?
aim into the world and you see a ghost of the block where it want to put.
then hold shift and press e.g. the right arrow to make it wider by 0.1 unit.
this is the 0.1 you can change in the radial menu under resize scale.
once you are happy with the size and position, you can press right mouse button to place the block.

[red51]

Block building works identical in creative and survival mode. Basically the resizing mostly works like in the Java version - you have to hold the right shift key and use the arrow keys (and page up/down) to resize a block along the 3 axes. If that doesn't work for some reason, please check the controls settings (see the building section).

The building system might be indeed a bit confusing at first... especially if you were used to the Java building system. The new one is a lot more powerful (and provides much more possibilities compared to the Java version), but we really need more ingame information about that. A dedicated section for the building part is definitely planned for the journal :)

In short, blocks are rotated with the arrow keys (left/right and up/down) as well as page up/down. To reset the rotation, you can press backspace. In order to resize a block, hold right shift and use the arrow keys. To reset the size, press right shift + backspace accordingly.

By default, the grid is enabled - it can be toggled with G. There is a window on the left side indicating which modes are active. You can change the grid size by pressing numpad + and -

A new, powerful tool is the modular snapping: it can be enabled by pressing enter. When active, your block will automatically snap to other blocks. When looking at an existing block, you will see various dots - the green one is the active pivot, i.e. when rotating the block, it will always rotate around this pivot (this makes it very easy to build rounded structures, for example).

If you press right ctrl, you can enable the manual positioning mode: the block will stay at the current position and you can move it with the arrow keys (and page up/down) manually. If the grid is active, it still snaps to the grid.

If you want to place multiple blocks at once, you can also hold the left mouse button to "drag" a line of blocks.

When holding C, the game brings up a building menu where you can change various settings - several of these settings were also available in the Java version, but only accessible via console commands. For instance, the move or rotate precisions (the orange settings) are the same as the "setp" and "setr" (and "setl") console commands in the Java version.

You're mentioning world and local settings specifically: these settings are available in the building menu for moving or rotating a block. When it comes to the "Rotation Mode", I'd recommend to keep the "Default" mode active. "World" basically means that the block will always rotate around fixed world axes, and "Local" means it rotates around the local block axes. "Default" is a mix of both modes (it was also the default mode in the Java version).
"Move Mode" is relevant if manual positioning (right ctrl) is enabled. If set to "World" (default), you can move the block along world axes. If set to "Local", you move it along the local block axes.
These are rather advanced settings and I wouldn't touch them for now ^^

[MustangMR]

The construction system is indeed very powerful and can be very confusing with the different modes. Don't give up! You'll get the hang of it. You start with a 1x1x1 block, but you can turn that block into anything from a 0.001x0.001x0.001 block to a 5x5x5 block. As Cursed mentioned, once you have the block in hand, use the arrow keys and pgup/pgdn keys to resize it. Right mouse to set it in place. Once it's set in place, you can't change it unless you use the edit command, but you can use a sledgehammer to remove it and try again without losing the block.

So place your first block. As Alpha said, you can follow the grid or turn it off and rotate it however you want it. That first block sets your frame of reference for everything you're going to build after that.

If you want to attach another block to it, you can just line it up by sight, but if you press the Enter key, this will put you in snap mode where you can snap blocks to each other. If you move your cursor over the block you just placed, you'll see a bunch of blue dots show up, one of them being green. The green dot is the one the new block will rotate with respect to. In this mode, the arrow keys will rotate the new object and the mouse will move it.

Once you enter snap mode, the arrow keys rotate the new object in your hand. They will rotate based on the green dot you've selected. Take some time to get used to that and see how moving to different dots will change the way the object lines up with the first block and how it rotates with respect to it. With this system, it's very easy to lay out a floor for a house in a few seconds, just snapping blocks to each other. I almost always start out laying a floor down in a 3x3 or 4x4 grid of 5x5x1 blocks to provide a quick base for a house or workshop, snapping them using the center dot on the face of the side I want to attach to, though if I'm just laying a flat floor, any dot will work.

But now you need to set walls on that floor, so again, lay your block on the corner of your floor you just laid down. Now you want to resize that block, so press AND HOLD the Right Shift key. With it held down, the arrow keys and pgup/pdgn keys will resize the block so you can change it into maybe 0.5x5x5 block to add the start of a wall to your floor. Once that first one is laid, you can snap the other into place quickly and easily on the sides of the wall piece. Spend some time getting used to resizing the new object.

But let's you want move that object a few units over for some reason. Maybe you want a small perimeter around the outside of your walls. Now just press AND RELEASE the Right Control key. This locks the new block in place and from here you can move it wherever you want using the arrow keys and pgup/pgdn keys. Notice that the behavior of the keys has changed from rotation to movement.

But now you want to rotate it for some reason and the keys are now moving the object. While still in snap mode, to go back to rotation controls, PRESS AND HOLD THE RIGHT CONTROL KEY. Be careful here that you don't take yourself out of snap mode. With the Right Control key held, the arrow keys and pgup/pgdn keys will rotate the object. When you release the Right Control key, you go back to move mode.

You'll notice that as you're moving, rotating and resizing the block, that it may go pretty slow with every click. Maybe you want it to move faster, or you need to really fine tune a connection. Here's where the radial menu comes into play. The C key brings up the radial menu. From there you can set the resolution for the different modes so that you can get very fine movements and scales, or very large for quick moves and resizes.

It's a little confusing and takes some time to get used to the different modes and what the arrow keys and pgup/pgdn keys are actually affecting, but take some time and learn it. It's an extremely powerful system for building stuff.