How to show / detect zone boundaries ?

[WildLynx]

How to detect / show on screen current zone boundaries? I built my first ever normal sized base, with my first character, a long time ago. There were no problems back then, but now the base behaves a bit funny, and turns out it was built on the zone border.
I want to find a better place for a base, preferable on a small isle, like my third base built by third character, but now I want to know exactly where the zone borders are.

[Das Trojanische Pferd]

always look at the ground they are very clear on where one starts and the other ends

[Veseljko]

Im not sure, but i think changes in instance count indicates changes of zones.
Try walking around with F2 menu opened and watch for bigger changes in instance count.

[knighttemplar1960]

The tile you are standing in is the one displayed on the minimap but it not so cut and dried. It hard to tell where black forest and meadows blends because both are green. Its hard to tell where mountains start because the snow starts in the previous biome but its very easy to tell the boundary of meadows and plains for instance:
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2874989013
and there are places where you can have as many as 4 biomes intersect. The only way to tell for certain is to spend time in the area and watch what spawns and where. These are the spawning rules:
https://valheim.fandom.com/wiki/Spawning_mechanics
Specifically zone spawns:
https://valheim.fandom.com/wiki/Spawn_zones
add to that the fact that zones can blur and have a few tiles from one biome tucked into another biome like this swamp feature I found in the plains that was a frost cave when I entered it:
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3256374906

[WildLynx]

My old base stands on line separating Meadows and ... meadows. But yes, there is big jump in that F2 - INSTANCES as I move across it. But it is still unrealiable way to detect a border.

[Snipe]

There is a much simpler way to tell.

Crank all the graphics settings to minimum except for the render scaling. With the settings that low, it is extremely easy to see the lines on the ground textures. It is especially obvious on sloped terrain. These lines indicate the zone borders.

Each zone is 64x64 meters, so if you can fine one side, you can easily measure to the other side using core wood beams or large stone walls (it will take 16 of them from edge to edge).

Also, if you are near the shore, you can see the water "squares". The water closest to the shore will be a slightly different color. Usually more of a brownish tint.

[WildLynx]

https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3458773279

It's how zone survey looks like. Map is at max zoom-in.

ZC or Z-C - Zone corner
Z-number - average instance number in zone
CB - cloud berries
T - Drakkar

There should be more strightforward way to do it, instead of using F2 debug menu or messing with graphic settings.
Or base of 5 blocks or more should create it's own sub-zone.
Or zones should be transparent to players, and should not cause any sudden block destructions.

[Snipe]

Originally posted by WildLynx:

Or base of 5 blocks or more should create it's own sub-zone.

Zones with player built structures on them, should all load if a structure spans across multiple zones, even if outside the zone load range.

Ive never had an issue with things being destroyed, but I have had issues with pets being outside of their walls due to the loading order of things, which is a pain.

Load order and forced loading needs some work for sure.

[WildLynx]

Problem is that Valheim probably do not know what player's structure is. It only knows about parts, unlike Space Engineers, where blocks can be attached to each other and they form a GRID - special entity with own id, some can be mobile, some are stations.
In Valheim, parts probably have no ownership data, except for doors and chests, if ward is active.

[Snipe]

Originally posted by WildLynx:

Problem is that Valheim probably do not know what player's structure is. It only knows about parts, unlike Space Engineers, where blocks can be attached to each other and they form a GRID - special entity with own id, some can be mobile, some are stations.
In Valheim, parts probably have no ownership data, except for doors and chests, if ward is active.

structures do actually have data like that in this game. It keeps a record of when the piece was built and what player built it.

[WildLynx]

I wonder how Valheim structures keep their stability when partially loaded.

For example: A base that spans two zones. One part of the base is reinforced with iron grids, other is depending on first for structural integity. Player approaches the weak part of the base and stops, before the strong part can load, and then waits until the structural integrity grace period is over. Should the weak part of the base collapse then, "without any valid reason" ?

Zones are pretty small, a medium sized base can easely happen to be built on zone border.

[Snipe]

Originally posted by WildLynx:

I wonder how Valheim structures keep their stability when partially loaded.

I just spent about half an hour doing a couple small tests. It wasnt very in-depth, but I did get some results.

If a piece goes through a zone border, that piece acts like it is attached to ground. Meaning it will not fall.

However....

The second the next zone is loaded, it instantly reverts to the integrity it is supposed to be.

HOWEVER AGAIN.....

and this is the dumb part... IF the piece that piece is supposed to be connected to, does not load within the first second or two (because pieces load in a specific order, usually depending on the order they were placed), the piece will fall before its attached piece has a chance to actually load in.

Meaning if you have a large base with a lot of pieces, the load order might royally screw up and it wont load the pieces that are supposed to be attached to the already loaded pieces first. Thus build pieces can just break off for no reason other than the game not loading things in the correct order.

I am going to assume that is what was happening to your sign in your other post in the bug section. The piece it was attached to was not loading fast enough and the sign ended up "floating" and breaking.

[WildLynx]

So, there are good news, but also bad news, and also worse news.
But I think developers already know about that issue, so it will most probably be fixed.