[Feedback] Building

[Ehvis]

I spent a couple of hours building stuff (mainly a base) and decided I should write up my thoughts on that. Note that I don't have any experience with other games with similar mechanics (just Starbound, which is only 2D), so all comments are just based on this.

Basic block stacking works very well once you get the hang of aiming at the right surfaces.

One minor problem is that I "lost" my cursor on several occasions. In the right lighting conditions the blocks can be very bright, making the white-only cursor invisible. A black outline could help with that.

The obvious missing feature is of course dragging rectangles of blocks so you can build walls and floors quickly. I assume this will be added at some point.

Since the terrain is not level, I occasionally needed (wanted) to put extra blocks underneath others. But unlike the editor, the game does not have free camera movement and you can't get a viewpoint from ground level. This makes it impossible to see the underside and therefore impossible to add blocks underneath.

Another placing problem was with bigger blocks. I tried to make a ramp with 6x3 ramp blocks. These blocks have their reference axis on the lower side, which means that you need to line up the bottom. However, the bottom was underground and I couldn't get there without building a substantial loop around it. One possible solution for this is the allow large block to translate as well (a modifier key + scroll wheel?).

While trying to build a round column, I noticed that I couldn't actually stack those quarter cylinder blocks (1x1) on top of each other. I could work around this by building a temporary wall next to it and use that as a reference. I may make this a separate bug report.

When building larger, more complex things, there is one feature I would like to see to make the work less tedious. It would be extremely helpful if I could build a macro block (on the ground, separate from the rest) and pull that into a slot. That would allow me to build some prefab wall elements that I could assemble into a building a lot quicker.

That's it for now. I'll keep on building and see what comes up.

[Black--Snow]

In regards to the building under the floor - Just build from the ground up rather than a platform if you need to.
For all else, I very much agree, especially with the prefabs, would be super helpful when the game starts getting a bit more complex I think.

As an aside, a mirror tool for creative mode would be very much appreciated, perhaps even in survival depending on the planned mechanics for it.

[Ehvis]

Building from the ground up works when you start. But eventually you extend something and will find that it hangs above the ground.

[Ehvis]

I would like to add one feature that the game desperately needs: an eyedropper function. While building large structures, you often switch between parts and find that they are back to default orientation. If you could simply pick an existing part including its orientation, building could go much faster.

[Aflockofpenguins]

A gridding system that allows us to lay blocks out in a (x by x) or (x by x by x) pattern would help build larger, quicker. Thats pretty much what i can say for now.