(No mods) How do I build a fence up a slope?

[EmberStar]

I'm trying to play without using building mods. (Including / especially S Plus now that it is no longer being maintained.) I am trying to build a fence up a slight hill. I'd like to do so in a way that might allow me to "connect" foundations to it where it levels out since my "cunning plan" is to have the exterior of buildings be part of the outer wall. I *think* that there is a way to snap pillars to fence foundations, but I'm not sure how to make it work. When I've tried the pillars either don't snap at all, or seem to pick nearly random points to snap to.

Is there a trick to doing this? I'd appreciate any suggestions, or a link to a decent "how to build" video that shows it. I've tried watching a couple, and found them almost incomprehensible - the one just played super loud dubstep while running the video at about 5 times normal speed with no explanation. The other seemed to forget that not everyone builds in creative mode and might not want to spend the resources to clip two wall panels and six ceilings into every single space. :(

*Edit* I am aware of the Fence Support pieces that were imported from S Plus. I'm also aware that right now they're completely broken and don't consider other Fence Support pieces to be valid foundations. And since they're the work of the same person who is no longer maintaining S Plus because he's apparently tired of Ark or something... yeah, not expecting them to be fixed.

[TyranntX]

Use pillars and ceilings instead of foundations, you don't need them unless it's to make things square with a gate or something

[EmberStar]

Originally posted by TyranntX:

Use pillars and ceilings instead of foundations, you don't need them unless it's to make things square with a gate or something

Right, but HOW do I use pillars? Like I said, when I've tried it the pillars seem to just snap to random points "somewhere close to" the fence foundation, or they refuse to snap to anything and act like it's not there.

[TyranntX]

Originally posted by EmberStar:

Originally posted by TyranntX:

Use pillars and ceilings instead of foundations, you don't need them unless it's to make things square with a gate or something

Right, but HOW do I use pillars? Like I said, when I've tried it the pillars seem to just snap to random points "somewhere close to" the fence foundation, or they refuse to snap to anything and act like it's not there.

Place pillars first, then place a ceiling on it.

[Panda]

Originally posted by EmberStar:

Originally posted by TyranntX:

Use pillars and ceilings instead of foundations, you don't need them unless it's to make things square with a gate or something

Right, but HOW do I use pillars? Like I said, when I've tried it the pillars seem to just snap to random points "somewhere close to" the fence foundation, or they refuse to snap to anything and act like it's not there.

What I think they're getting at is that you should use just pillars and ceilings for placement and give up on fence foundations. Place the pillar first where you want to start. Attach the ceiling piece to it and continue until you need to place another pillar(s). Since you can stack pillars on top of each other you can build up or down a hill using this method. However, the wall will look very staggered/uneven until you go back and even it out.

[Vesuvius]

Its next to impossible in vanilla unless you disable collision.

[TyranntX]

Originally posted by Panda:

Originally posted by EmberStar:

Right, but HOW do I use pillars? Like I said, when I've tried it the pillars seem to just snap to random points "somewhere close to" the fence foundation, or they refuse to snap to anything and act like it's not there.

What I think they're getting at is that you should use just pillars and ceilings for placement and give up on fence foundations. Place the pillar first where you want to start. Attach the ceiling piece to it and continue until you need to place another pillar(s). Since you can stack pillars on top of each other you can build up or down a hill using this method. However, the wall will look very staggered/uneven until you go back and even it out.

+1 Exactly. only use fundations as a square, or to position the pillar to where you want it

[EmberStar]

Originally posted by TyranntX:

Originally posted by Panda:

What I think they're getting at is that you should use just pillars and ceilings for placement and give up on fence foundations. Place the pillar first where you want to start. Attach the ceiling piece to it and continue until you need to place another pillar(s). Since you can stack pillars on top of each other you can build up or down a hill using this method. However, the wall will look very staggered/uneven until you go back and even it out.

+1 Exactly. only use fundations as a square, or to position the pillar to where you want it

I don't want to use pillars for the entire fence. Stone pillars are stupid expensive compared to fence foundations, and I don't want gaps in the wall that things can wiggle under. I'm tired of random dilos and *especially* pegos attacking stuff, which is why I want to fence the entire area to begin with. It's also why I'm not just using stone gates - I think that at least the small ones *will* snap edge to edge, but they'll have huge gaps under the corners depending on how steep the hill is.

What I'm trying to do is snap the pillars to the the row of fence foundations in a way that they line up. I want NO GAPS. I'm pretty sure that having the outer wall as a single structure might also be needed if I wanted to do anything with pin codes in the future - such as placing X Plant turrets protected by double doors as shutters to keep them from trying to gun down every passing parasaur. Or worse, dimorphodons.

[Vesuvius]

Originally posted by EmberStar:

Originally posted by TyranntX:

+1 Exactly. only use fundations as a square, or to position the pillar to where you want it

I don't want to use pillars for the entire fence. Stone pillars are stupid expensive compared to fence foundations, and I don't want gaps in the wall that things can wiggle under. I'm tired of random dilos and *especially* pegos attacking stuff, which is why I want to fence the entire area to begin with. It's also why I'm not just using stone gates - I think that at least the small ones *will* snap edge to edge, but they'll have huge gaps under the corners depending on how steep the hill is.

What I'm trying to do is snap the pillars to the the row of fence foundations in a way that they line up. I want NO GAPS. I'm pretty sure that having the outer wall as a single structure might also be needed if I wanted to do anything with pin codes in the future - such as placing X Plant turrets protected by double doors as shutters to keep them from trying to gun down every passing parasaur. Or worse, dimorphodons.

Like i said.... collision.... disable that and you can place fence foundations into the mesh and build up from them

[EmberStar]

I give up. Either I'm not explaining the problem correctly or people are deliberately ignoring me. The fence foundations snap to *each other* just fine, aside from areas where the ground's collision mesh doesn't match the visible surface and I can't see them because they're snapping to an invisible surface two feet under the visible "ground." The wall they make is ugly as hell, but it's all one structure.

The PROBLEM is that I want to snap a pillar TO THE FENCE LINE so that I can build a structure as part of the outer wall. The pillars DO NOT reliably do this. Sometimes they'll snap to a point on either side of the fence (which is what I want.) Sometimes they'll only snap to the corners of the fence foundation. Sometimes they'll refuse to snap to ANYTHING and simply error that the placement is obstructed.

[Mic]

Vesuvius is right, in Vanilla snapping pillars has become worse if not impossible in most cases due to the anti meshing protocols now in place.
Building in Ark is down to how much patience you have and how quickly you recover from a rage quit.
Snapping pillars to a fence foundation you can see, varies on where you stand when trying to place it. This can take several minutes of minor moves to get the position you need, and this happens on nearly every pillar in a complex build.
Snapping pillars to a fence foundation that disappears into the mesh is a one way trip to rage but can be done. Move place remove repeat. You will get the green light exactly where you want it click and it will shove the pillar behind you.
I have found that moving a structure across in either direction can turn a no snap point into an easy build.
If you don't want/can't waste resources on building support structure in areas that won't snap where you need them, then you need to move the structure away from the offending area.
"K" mode can help a lot or looking under the map for some.

Everything in Ark is set to destroy you even the building mechanics.

[TyranntX]

Originally posted by EmberStar:

Originally posted by TyranntX:

+1 Exactly. only use fundations as a square, or to position the pillar to where you want it

I don't want to use pillars for the entire fence. Stone pillars are stupid expensive compared to fence foundations, and I don't want gaps in the wall that things can wiggle under. I'm tired of random dilos and *especially* pegos attacking stuff, which is why I want to fence the entire area to begin with. It's also why I'm not just using stone gates - I think that at least the small ones *will* snap edge to edge, but they'll have huge gaps under the corners depending on how steep the hill is.

What I'm trying to do is snap the pillars to the the row of fence foundations in a way that they line up. I want NO GAPS. I'm pretty sure that having the outer wall as a single structure might also be needed if I wanted to do anything with pin codes in the future - such as placing X Plant turrets protected by double doors as shutters to keep them from trying to gun down every passing parasaur. Or worse, dimorphodons.

Then there's no way in hell you are going to build what you want. If you want to build ANYTHING Uphill, you must use pillars. otherwise... move to somewhere flat.