Stone pillar + Stone Ceiling, good as a Stone Foundation?

[davespil]

I was having a discusion with tribe mates about an upcoming buildng project. I want to build my massive stone base using pillars and ceilings instead of foundations because the area we want to build isnt that level and the base footprint is 15x15. My tribe mates say that we need to make as many foundations as we can because using ceilings on pillars isnt the same. I disagree. They say that you can't build that high or add that many floors on top of pillars + ceilings. Is that true? Or is it th same building limits as foundations? Thank you.

[Young]

If you can't build metal yet then yes definetly. Otherwise go straight to metal much safer from raids. Use stone pillars and ceilings.

[davespil]

I can do metal, but I'm on a PvE server and my tribe hates me making metal buildings. But, what you are saying is pillar + ceiling is just as good as a foundation?

[Armada]

No not at all. There is a huge difference betweenthe pillar/ceiling combo and a foundation. There is a premium on the mats required to make the P&C over the foundation (unless you only use pillars every second ceiling where only single pilars are required, BAD MOVE). The foundation has higher hit points. The overall support provided by foundations far exeeeds those of the pilar and ceiling.

tldr foundations (of any material type) are cheaper, stronger and the best choice where they can be used.

[Young]

Pillars and foundations should be used to even out uneven ground, you should be ok with metal pillars and foundations but if its stone then just do stone foundations. Especially since its PVE theres no need for metal structures since you won't be raided.

[davespil]

Originally posted by Armada:

The overall support provided by foundations far exeeeds those of the pilar and ceiling.

OK, how does that affect construction? Does that mean I can stack more walls and build more floors on foundations over pillars/ceilings? Thats all I care about. Can I still build a massive base with pillars and ceilings. Material cost and hit points don't matter to me. I don't care about anything but the ability to build a huge 4 story base and each story is 4 walls high. Can it be done without foundations? Or, do pillars/ceilings have a build limit?

I will put a pillar under each ceiling and will add a second ceiling right on-top of the first so it is flush with the pillar sticking out. I heard that double floors help with people/dinos falling through the floor. Is this true? Again, materials and hit points are of no concern.

[Armada]

A little test if you have the time and inclination.... in stone make 5 ceilings and 3 pillars

Put them up in a row with a pillar support every second ceiling. demo the middle pillar, then demo one of the end pillars. An attacker would require explosive to destroy 12500hp to destroy both of those pillars you just demolished. That is less than one stone foundation (15000hp)

If you do this you will see 3 ceiling collapsed, in game everything built above them would have also collapsed leaving a big gaping hole in your structure.

[Armada]

Crap..... missed you are on pve. Do whatever works for your build area :D Pillars give you plenty of flexibilty, so probably what you want.

[davespil]

Originally posted by Armada:

A little test if you have the time and inclination.... in stone make 5 ceilings and 3 pillars

Put them up in a row with a pillar support every second ceiling. demo the middle pillar, then demo one of the end pillars. An attacker would require explosive to destroy 12500hp to destroy both of those pillars you just demolished. That is less than one stone foundation (15000hp)

If you do this you will see 3 ceiling collapsed, in game everything built above them would have also collapsed leaving a big gaping hole in your structure.

Who's gonna demo my stuff on a PvE server?

[hullu hullu]

Me, im joining your server with the mighty admin exploit hack cheat program and attack your base with alpha dodorexwyvern!!!!

Jokes aside, i never use foundations on pve, they have so unpredictable behavior, sometimes you place some and out of a sudden the rest of them are not placeable like you planned, this can result in you having to move the whole already placed foundations, depending what you planned to build.

Pillars and ceilings are perfect imho, they give you 100% flexibility and the only thing you have to do is to make sure that the height of the ceilings you wanna use as floor for the building exceed the highest terrain part under the planned building by at least half a pillar height.

I once planned and built 500 foundations for a large building, know what? i was able to place 30 of them and after that it said "cannot place blablabla" i was soooo annoyed, ill never ever use foundations again.

However, theres a bug related to ceilings, dinos can sink through them.
To prevent that from happening you can place a pillar under each ceiling (doesnt have to reach the ground for building support then) and it should stop sinking the dinos.
If you also hate the sticking out pillar heads then, you can put another layer of ceilings on top of the ceilings the pillars stick out.
Maybe the dual layered ceilings are already enouh to prevent sinking but i never tested that.

Especially mantis have a big sinking problem, if i park my mantis in the 2nd floor on a ceiling without pillar, it will end up like i log in and see the mantis in the 1st floor, but cannot ride it or access it, because for the server its still up in the 2nd floor, always have to whistle it to fix that bug.

I hope i helped you, feel free to ask any questions.

[Hunter221167]

I have built a base 25 x 11 on sloped beachfront, starting at 1 pillar high on the high ground and stretching to 4 pillars High at the lowest ground point.
On top of that platform I built a Behemoth Gate sized Box With internal sub Floors and extra structures on top.
I build all my structures on pillars and have encountered no limitations on build size so far
So unless you plan to build a 50 storey skyscraper pillars will work.

[FeilDOW]

Using ceilings as foundations is terrible, unless you like not staying in your base. You and smaller Dino's will fall through ceilings.

[chaddy]

i found that foundations are better to log out on as bodies seem fall through ceilings i have found, so when we build our base we built a logout room with foundation the rest of the base was with ceilings anbd pillars as it was over water, mind you we rarely stored dino's in there as a few i.e scorpions seem to fall through the cieling's alot.
if it's just a base for you to liv in designate a small area as a log out room on foundation, oh and there is a trick to not have the pillars show through the foundation.

[chaddy]

p.s if you worried about the gap foundation and ceilings/pillars give you, we just made the most of putting a wall up and beds and objects down to hide it.

[davespil]

Originally posted by perriehintz:

I have built a base 25 x 11 on sloped beachfront, starting at 1 pillar high on the high ground and stretching to 4 pillars High at the lowest ground point.
On top of that platform I built a Behemoth Gate sized Box With internal sub Floors and extra structures on top.
I build all my structures on pillars and have encountered no limitations on build size so far
So unless you plan to build a 50 storey skyscraper pillars will work.

Thank you for answering my question! No one else even tried...