building/ landscaping tips?

[Fatum]

So I spent most of my first few days (rl days, on 70 something in game) exploring and getting basics. But I think I found a spot i want to settle in and build a proper home. Problem is, it's pretty hilly. I'm trying to use the hoe to flatten but its... not ideal.

In games like ark you could enable clipping so you could put foundations into the ground to enable flat building, but I haven't found any simple tricks like that..


anyone got an idea on how to easily or quickly flatten large swaths of land?

[CGA]

when flattening it flattens from the point you stand, you can hold shift to make it flatten where you look (higher/lower). some times there will be a small mound left or a little hole, then ether use pick once and then flatten again, or raise with hoe once and flatten again. when trying to raise ground to expand. clicking on the edge will make a big difference (save you stone) if you click further out it will raise from the bottom (like with the small holes mentioned earlier) and will take way more stone to raise to same level. hope it helps

[xx_HIGHLANDER_xx]

itds a bit more tricky on hills , you need a combo if mining and flattening , sometimes you need to lift with stone aswell , its a bit wierd sometimes but you get a hang of it

[Ludovsky]

Also, less direct and need to experience it more myself as this is going more from other people's experiences: be conscious of the "scale" of your terraforming.

Lot of people mention drops in FPS when landscaping in a large scale which might be partly from the game having to compare the landscaped area with the generated seed of the gameworld and struggling more the larger a landscaping effort is.

((at least, that's my personal hypothesis))

Note this was from players talking about what happened when they tried to remove entire hills or did stuff like flattening the equivalent of three football fields so your mileage may vary.

[MorbidJester]

build with the hills and make areas to build at multiple levels. 1. use pickaxe on a single spot once ( that should create a flat spot) 2. use hoe to make said flat spot to the size you like. and there ya go, build to your hearts content. hope this helped

[Langostinu]

I started my hometown of Thurgrimshüm early on in the game, to be honest... been building it little by little (even demolished my first house to build myself a three-story mansion up in the hills, near a burial stone formation), the only trick to it is patience, break it down in small portions, like widening a port for easier entrance, or flatten a certain area to make a certain building, like a mead hall. A wise use of the hoe and the pickaxe is also key... I find it better to count the clicks of a pickaxe when going down, and once I have a big enough area that is mostly flat, I go over with the hoe to smooth it all up

[daggaz]

Choose a corner of your building as the correct level. Build a foundation from there using horizontal poles/beams. Manipulate soil as needed to just touch the outer foundation. Add floor and start building upwards. Dont even need to make things perfectly flat like this.

[Marstil]

I watched a couple of tutorial videos on YT that were very helpful. I think the comments of this thread already covered it, but if you are curious the channel was CohhCarnage. I am not affiliated with this person / channel.

[Fatum]

OK, thanks for the tips, nice to see a very active community. Soon as I escape from prison..i mean get off work, I'll try.
I'm not doing any thing crazy, just want to build walls around a prebuilt village i cleared out. I've fixed up the buildings and towers, planted crops and set up beehives, so all that's left is defending it. Tho that's really more for cosmetic/rp aspects as I'm in a meadow biome, so don't know if I'll ever have issues even during defense events.
Tho I am near swamp and forest biomes on either side, so possible a troll or some other nasty might wander out.

[killerkw17.TTV]

I have noticed you get a far more level surface by taking one hit deep with the pickaxe over the entire area and then using the hoe on any raised spots. It's also easier to put flooring over a pickaxe hole and just add bracing poles underneath if needed, then the floor is raised and level.

[Fatum]

So, I actually scrapped my idea to flatten everything after discovering masonry. The stone stuff builds MUCH better. Can even snap into the ground a little bit to create smooth walls. Starting to come together nicely. Of course the builder in me is never happy, already considering whats next once this is done :p but at least my pack of friends now has a stronghold close by some swamps and forests. (First base was basically at spawn in, not close to anything good but water..

[Knight of the Criminally Insane]

Originally posted by Fatum:

So I spent most of my first few days (rl days, on 70 something in game) exploring and getting basics. But I think I found a spot i want to settle in and build a proper home. Problem is, it's pretty hilly. I'm trying to use the hoe to flatten but its... not ideal.

In games like ark you could enable clipping so you could put foundations into the ground to enable flat building, but I haven't found any simple tricks like that..


anyone got an idea on how to easily or quickly flatten large swaths of land?

Like others mentioned, getting the flattest surface sometimes requires a combination of using a pickaxe and the hoe to flatten the ground. The hoe will sometimes only flatten it so far. Using both will net you better results.

[Fatum]

Yeah, i'm starting to get the hang of it, as nice as my little village looked, it's time to upgrade, I just tore down 2 of the unused buildings and am raising/flattening the ground so I can build one huge keep. Now I'm wondering if anyone could tip me on the smoke system? I"m wondering, if I put fires in the basement, and leave a gap up and out, and cover everything else, does the smoke go up that "chimney" stack or will it just rise from where ever it is?
(aka do I need a chimney for every smoke generating object)

[Marstil]

From the little that I have seen so far, smoke seems to act like real life. It will rise and escape, but if you have too much, it will accumulate. If you have more than one fire, I would expect the smoke to rise from each and fill the ceiling area. Wherever the outlet is, it will leave at that spot. Just make sure the outlet is large enough to handle the combined smoke and you should be fine.