building on uneven ground

[EnigManic]

I have an issue with building that I wish the developers would address. Building on uneven surfaces is a pain.


Here's a scenario:

I'm building a structure on a hill top. I am able to lay 4 foundations in a 2x2 box. I attempt to lay another foundation next to it to extend the floor but I can't because the ground is uneven. So I use a column..

HOW THE GAME ACTUALLY WORKS -
I lay the column and then lay a ceiling on top. I'm able to place the ceiling flush with the adjacent foundation but the top of the column protrudes through the floor. Ugh!

HOW IT SHOULD WORK -
If you place a column on uneven ground adjacent to a foundation, the game should "bury" the column enough so that a ceiling placed on top of it sits flush with the adjacent foundation without the column sticking up.

[DarthaNyan]

have you tried to place ceiling and only then attaching pillar below it (crawl there is needed)?

[Jwsp]

Originally posted by Nizidramaniiyt:

have you tried to place ceiling and only then attaching pillar below it (crawl there is needed)?

Indeed. I always place foundations. then a ceilling attached to it. The ceilling gets a pilar under it and from the ceiling i build other ceillings. Works like a charm

[Death by Snoo Snoo]

Originally posted by Nizidramaniiyt:

have you tried to place ceiling and only then attaching pillar below it (crawl there is needed)?

When you place a ceiling and then attach a pillar the top little bit of the pillar will extend beyond the top of the ceiling. There is no way around that, and the amount of work to get both the pillar to work and the ceiling flush would be... insane.

You need to build a ceiling below the foundation and then build a pillar off of this. If you want the pillar to actually look like it's supporting the ceiling above it gets even more challenging. The complexity is keeping it all part of one structure while doing this; if you seperate it from the main structure then you cannot get the foundation support to work correctly again.

[Jackiedaytona]

you can always do what you are doing then place another layer of ceilings on top of the pillars to make them not show and extend that layer all the way cross your structure

[Carnage]

Originally posted by Martin:

Originally posted by EnigManic:

HOW IT SHOULD WORK -
If you place a column on uneven ground adjacent to a foundation, the game should "bury" the column enough so that a ceiling placed on top of it sits flush with the adjacent foundation without the column sticking up.

This is actually how the game does work.

But it limits you to how far the piller will go into the ground below you. So you effectively are limited to the size of even flooring. You will eventually have to choose between continuing with a flat floor with pillers poking through or stepping down a slight level.

NOPE, wrong, at no point will a pillar being attached to a ceiling ever be flush with it, there is ALWAYS a portion of the pillar sticking through the ceiling.

[Gazz]

Originally posted by ЯтR SSgt. Death by Snoo Snoo:

When you place a ceiling and then attach a pillar the top little bit of the pillar will extend beyond the top of the ceiling. There is no way around that

Not true.

You start with a pillar so you get started placing a plane of (throwaway) ceilings. Thatch, whatever. Doesn't matter.

You place pillars under all the spots you want, accepting that they stick out the top.

Destroy all those ceilings.
Now you have a nice forest of pillars, all on the same level.
(this is much easier than "snapping" pillars to each other)

You place "good" ceiling parts on those pillars. Nothing will stick out.

Repairs are always tricky afterwards.
You may have to poke and wiggle a bit, snapping new/replacement pillars to OTHER pillars instead of simply glueing them to ceilings.

[Jmee]

Originally posted by EnigManic:

HOW IT SHOULD WORK -
If you place a column on uneven ground adjacent to a foundation, the game should "bury" the column enough so that a ceiling placed on top of it sits flush with the adjacent foundation without the column sticking up.

This, so much.
If I place a Foundation on a hill, I don't want to see the corner of it floating all ugly... I want it to detect that and bury itself further down. And be able to keep connecting more Foundations to it down the hillside, which will "get taller" and bury themselves into the ground. No unsightly floating crap, or red boxes saying you can't build there.
Hillsides keep interfering with my base designs and making whole areas almost unbuildable.

Obviously if you placed something at the top of a hill and it went down really far, it should update its tooltip to show you it requires excess materials (whatever type it is, wood/stone/metal etc) that you need in your inventory in order to place it, so that people wouldn't use it as a quick and cheap way to make high walls.

I dunno, but something has to be done about slopes not being easily built on, and how ugly it turns out currently with floating edges sticking out and unevenness.

[Skeldarkday]

Ok we are suppose to be building a floor or whatever and you wat it level as you place foundations. What do builders do to level the land. They have to add more soil or dig so the next foundation is flush with the previous one. The game should make it that when you place a foundation on an uneven ground it places itself as if the work was done for it to be able to place it.

[Aphotep]

Originally posted by Fluffy:

Originally posted by EnigManic:

HOW IT SHOULD WORK -
If you place a column on uneven ground adjacent to a foundation, the game should "bury" the column enough so that a ceiling placed on top of it sits flush with the adjacent foundation without the column sticking up.

This, so much.
If I place a Foundation on a hill, I don't want to see the corner of it floating all ugly... I want it to detect that and bury itself further down. And be able to keep connecting more Foundations to it down the hillside, which will "get taller" and bury themselves into the ground. No unsightly floating crap, or red boxes saying you can't build there.
Hillsides keep interfering with my base designs and making whole areas almost unbuildable.

That's what ceiling and pillar constructions ar for. It works fine with suporting buildings, but I sure hope the devs get around to fix the pilars sticking througfh the ceilings, as that's absolutely ugly.
Having Foundations extend themselves further down on their own would be cool too, as it would make building in steep terain a lot more streamlined. It would have to consume additional resources to be balanced, at least in my opinion, to keep pilars a viable alternate.

[Ottofyre]

Originally posted by Gazz:

Originally posted by ЯтR SSgt. Death by Snoo Snoo:

When you place a ceiling and then attach a pillar the top little bit of the pillar will extend beyond the top of the ceiling. There is no way around that

Not true.

You start with a pillar so you get started placing a plane of (throwaway) ceilings. Thatch, whatever. Doesn't matter.

You place pillars under all the spots you want, accepting that they stick out the top.

Destroy all those ceilings.
Now you have a nice forest of pillars, all on the same level.
(this is much easier than "snapping" pillars to each other)

You place "good" ceiling parts on those pillars. Nothing will stick out.

Repairs are always tricky afterwards.
You may have to poke and wiggle a bit, snapping new/replacement pillars to OTHER pillars instead of simply glueing them to ceilings.

Even if that worked all the time for everyone (doesn't work most of the time for me) all that work and wasted resources to have it so the pillars don't stick out should be unnecessary. The pillars shoud just not stick through the floor to begin with.

[Vasco Da Llama]

Bump. I hate the fact that the pillars stick through the floors. They should just attach to the bottom of ceilings like normal pillars *grumble grumble curses under breath*

[Vasco Da Llama]

Originally posted by pjcareyiii:

And if you're complaining about the time it takes to build an aesthetically pleasing base perhaps you should not be a builder, plenty of engram points can be avoided and used for instance in saddles and weapons.

No need to be snarky. We're simply pointing out how unnecessary the process is. Sure it's easy to make a fake flooring and put your real one over it. Sure there are workarounds and temporary fixes, but the fact remains: it's wholly unnecessary. Plus, these methods don't always work (e.g. when you're using foundations on your ground floor but pillars for your first floor). You get gaps or strange-looking structures.

Pretty much all the devs have to do is tweak the appearance of placed pillars by a couple centimetres and the problem is solved. No big coding/programming work needed because foundation rules will remain the same and collision rules as well (since pillar tips are walk-through-able anyway).

If enough people bring this to the devs' attention (in a nice, calm, helpful way), then something can be done about it, because they will notice that it's important to some players.

[Alley_Killa]

I think yall are all kind of missing the point. in real life if you're gonna build a structure you could build a taller foundation. Maybe make 3 different size foundations. Regular, little bit higher (say 2-3 foot more), and the a much higher (3-6 foot). All with varying degree of materials needed. Yes there would be a point where pillars aw ceilings would be need, over cliffs etc.

The the other idea that I had would be to be able to craft a foundation and when you go go put it around a other foundagion that would require more materials to make it taller it would give you the option of whether not you wanted to spend the extra materials to make it level.

[Ryker]

Here is an easier way, imo

Build up to your first flat surface, then boom!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p9Og0WE2eYk