Let's talk about the building mechanics

[DrSorros]

So while people are getting caught up in suggestions for future features and bug reports, I thought it would be worthwhile to start a thread about the current mechanics of building structures that are in game right now. What people like or dislike about them, etc--not just "add this feature for a star wars theme in the future please"

Obviously people are going to make major comparisons to Minecraft, so I'll start by noting that the build mode is quite distinct-you aren't manually targeting and placing each block in a first person view, but instead utilizing a third person birds eye. Both methods have their advantages and disadvantages--it's great being able to see exactly where your other blocks are all over the structure for symmetry and other issues that arise when building on a large scale in Minecraft, but it also feels more awkward at times and less gamey. The ability to shape terrain, use colours, etc, are great.

There are a few awkward controls I find. When attempting to select a block using the drag feature, for example, you can't just switch back over to placing blocks on the side menu-you have to re-select the drag feature to deactivate it. The camera movement is also a bit slow I find.

Anyone else have thoughts on it?

[Gtagentleman]

I think we need a zoom in/out mechanic and better highlight for placing pieces.

[ttcrose]

Originally posted by Gtagentleman:

I think we need a zoom in/out mechanic and better highlight for placing pieces.

You can Zoom in and Out using a mouse wheel. We've not yet mapped it to Keyboard or a Controller though, that's a WIP.

I'm going to Pin this thread to see what we get.

[Cirom]

Originally posted by ttcrose:

You can Zoom in and Out using a mouse wheel. We've not yet mapped it to Keyboard or a Controller though, that's a WIP.

I'm going to Pin this thread to see what we get.

I've found that "zooming" with the mousewheel merely just brings you in closer to the block you're looking at - it doesn't set the block as your "center of vision" still though. (Making it so that if you rotate around the block.. you end up rotating around something that's actually far underground instead)

This is my only complaint with the building system.

[DrSorros]

Thanks for the pin! I know it only came out today so I imagine most people are still overwhelmed by the exploration but I'm hoping some people have started looking at the building itself and we can get a productive discussion going.

@Cirom

I agree with that, the block you select should be centered on for the camera.

[Nodnarb162]

I think for terrain modification the in-game system works pretty well, but my camera goes go a little hay-wire sometimes and I end up trying to see whats going on from underneath the ground. However, I feel like for making smaller things the in-game system falls really short, I haven't spent a whole lot of time messing around with it, but I couldn't see anyway to build with SNOT type construction techniques, and the brick variety was pretty small. I would prefer to see some better integration with LDD for building smaller models like cars and buildings and what not, while the main in-game system could be used for altering the landscape.

[Marina]

I would like to have some form of block size selection, it seems that i have to count the pegs on each peice to find out what its dimensions are. Also i would REALLY love if there was a way to stay in flight for the entire time im building somthing, it seems swapping items gets jittery as i fall back to earth

[Gmr Leon]

I'm not sure if others have noticed yet, but in trying to learn how the Lock Axes tool works, I found that it's great but incredibly finicky. What do I mean? Lock Axes occasionally swaps between which Axes you've locked, so for example:

Lock Axes: XY.
*lay down bricks, suddenly swaps*
Lock Axes: XZ.
*try to switch back to XY, get YZ, go with it*
Lock Axes: YZ then swaps to XY.

It's a great idea, we just need it to stay locked.

Alongside that, the Drag Select tool is excellent for copying and pasting created structures, but it poses an entirely different issue. If you want to take the walls of a house and copy/paste them one atop the other, it's a huge pain right now since there's no Lock Axis option here, nor does it lock in with existing bricks (as laying them down one by one mostly does).

It may be that I'm using this tool for the wrong purpose right now and it's only intended for copying whole structures to save (as I think the store page advertises it), but it's something to consider for whenever the real copy/paste tool is implemented, I think.

Also, if we're including terrain modification here, I think it might be worth pointing out that it could be really useful to have a size adjustment for Y Axis, not just the current XZ axes. As it stands, if you wanted to create flatter terrains of certain elevations, it's a little rough, even with the Flatten Tool.

Some work on the Smooth Tool seems like it may also be needed, as it currently doesn't seem as distinct from Flatten as I would have expected (e.g. covering the studded surface leftover from shaving down the landscape w/ smooth flat bricks).

Originally posted by MegaKirby:

I would like to have some form of block size selection, it seems that i have to count the pegs on each peice to find out what its dimensions are. Also i would REALLY love if there was a way to stay in flight for the entire time im building somthing, it seems swapping items gets jittery as i fall back to earth

I was sorta thinking the same on the size selection, except I was also thinking it might be nice to have an optional readout of the the length/width/height of laid out structures when highlighted or selected. It might seem a little detail-crazy, but it would help in laying out symmetrical structures without having to count out the studs on each brick.

Heck, having that appear for the longer/wider bricks in the menu when hovering over with your cursor would be lovely.

[Nykara]

Is there a way to remove only one terrain block at a time? At the moment its removing like this big huge square of terrain at once

[Cirom]

Originally posted by Ishka:

Is there a way to remove only one terrain block at a time? At the moment its removing like this big huge square of terrain at once

Use the Block Tools instead of the Terrain Tools. The Terrain Tools is more for mass-editing while the Block Tools is more for piece-by-piece.

[Ramsickle]

Well first one in this list is but isn't related to building mechanic. It is if underwater building is going to be thing, as it stands seeing underwater is well...difficult. So if we end up building underwater (which i hope so) then better water bricks may be needed. Also the camera started going nuts once I was under the water.

http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=453652101

When building, my build camera sometimes just zooms right in without anything being pressed. Rotating sometimes zooms in and out on its own.

Adding blocks to terrain can sometimes also go nuts causing me to be zoomed into the underground blocks and start shaking camera a bit after rotating.


A nice feature would be able to select the size of the area you want to build. So say I want to use 1x1 blocks but in a 10x10 area, let me select a 10x10 area and it create that 10x10 filled with 1x1 blocks (or whatever block you were using). That way we have option of building brick by brick or by area.

When building things higher up, if I hold shift and move sideways I can build onto sides without having blocks underneath, if I don't do that then I cannot place a brick just to the side of another. Maybe make that possible as well since it already is if using shift/drag.

Only other issue is sometimes it just doesn't want to snap onto certain bricks, instead goes somewhere else around them.

[c5]

So far, I think the building and overall editing feels very intuitive. I do a lot of game development in Unity and 3DS max, and the controls they've got for moving around the scene and editing things are extremely similar to what those programs use That said, I would like to edit larger areas at once with the terrain tools.

[Ganondalf]

I had hoped to be able to build my own custom driveable car, plane, house with working doors, etc. Will these things be possible?

[hawkdnd]

Thus far my experience with the building mechanics has been to put a pile of bricks down so I could get into a tree house - not concerned with color, overall placement, etc, just functionality. In terms of this, it worked but the camera angle was my biggest problem, I got stuck behind a tree, and zooming out with the scroll wheel only got me so far. Basically, I threw a pile of 2x4s down in a rough pyramid shape until I got tall enough I though I could get in, and then went inside. At this point I didn't realize I could just climb walls, otherwise I would have made just a wall.

I think that separating the color and the brick choosers (in terms of menus) would go a long way to making it less unwieldy and easier to see what you're doing, because less of the screen would be taken up by that. It might be nice to take a leaf from LDD's book and make the palette similar to its. Also something nice you can do in LDD is scroll out over the palette to make the brick icons smaller, and the sorting of the bricks in the palette (although it's not the most intuitive either).

[souperbrick]

Originally posted by Gtagentleman:

I think we need a zoom in/out mechanic and better highlight for placing pieces.

YES

[souperbrick]

I love parkouring on my buildings. :D