# Digging / "Slice height"

**URL:** <https://discourse.stonehearth.net/t/digging-slice-height/12935>\
**Category:** Suggestions\
**Created:** [June 6, 2015, 9:25am UTC](https://discourse.stonehearth.net/t/digging-slice-height/12935 "2015-06-06T09:25:06Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 11\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![Edisn](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/flex022/user_avatar/discourse.stonehearth.net/edisn/32/18826_2.png) [@Edisn](https://discourse.stonehearth.net/u/Edisn)\
**Post date:** [June 6, 2015, 9:25am UTC](https://discourse.stonehearth.net/t/digging-slice-height/12935/1 "2015-06-06T09:25:06Z")

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Problem first  
I tried to digg a steircase for a mine, and noticed the standard height (aswell as cliffs in the terain) is 5,  
diging use a size of 4.  
This leads to a high use of mine single block.

So my suggestion is to change the base for mining to 5x5x4 (4 for height), 5x5x5 (similar to 9177), and maybe add stair/Ramp tool.

PS: I havent checked if it is possible to use a building for that purpose, and i can’t write lua.

Might be close to:

> [@Mining height suggestion](http://discourse.stonehearth.net/t/mining-height-suggestion/9177):
>
> I’ve noticed that mining zones are broken down into 4x4 ‘deep blocks’ and 1x4 ‘surface blocks’. Mining zones can thus be 4x4x4 in size or 5x4x4, depending on if you click on a top surface or on a wall side. When mining out cliff areas, I remove 5x4x4 chunks but often find the villagers stopping the task and wandering off. Peripheral parts of the ‘surface’ blocks end up not being mined and float around until I build a ladder for them to be reached. The mining zone remains highlighted and other p…

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**Author:** ![Tuhalu](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/flex022/user_avatar/discourse.stonehearth.net/tuhalu/32/44358_2.png) [@Tuhalu](https://discourse.stonehearth.net/u/Tuhalu)\
**Post date:** [June 6, 2015, 10:19am UTC](https://discourse.stonehearth.net/t/digging-slice-height/12935/3 "2015-06-06T10:19:03Z")

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I think this depends on how you point the cursor. If you point at a wall, it will only do 4 high, but if you dig down you can get 5 high. So if you want to dig a large area, the idea is to dig out the highest level and then start digging down a level at a time.

It would be nice if we could designate large areas in both vertical and horizontal area to dig, but I think they will need to do some work with the various view styles as well to make it work,

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**Author:** ![Teleros](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/flex022/user_avatar/discourse.stonehearth.net/teleros/32/63349_2.png) [@Teleros](https://discourse.stonehearth.net/u/Teleros)\
**Post date:** [June 6, 2015, 12:35pm UTC](https://discourse.stonehearth.net/t/digging-slice-height/12935/4 "2015-06-06T12:35:47Z")

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@Tuhalu’s got it - digging down gives you a hole that is 5 voxels deep, but digging horizontally results in a 4x4x4 cube. This is done to ensure that there’s always a floor/roof to any mining, so as to prevent things like falling into chasms 🙂 .

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**Author:** ![coasterspaul](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/flex022/user_avatar/discourse.stonehearth.net/coasterspaul/32/47876_2.png) [@coasterspaul](https://discourse.stonehearth.net/u/coasterspaul)\
**Post date:** [June 6, 2015, 2:29pm UTC](https://discourse.stonehearth.net/t/digging-slice-height/12935/5 "2015-06-06T14:29:37Z")

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Unfortunately, it makes it annoying when you’re _trying_ to dig out a chasm.

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**Author:** ![Edisn](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/flex022/user_avatar/discourse.stonehearth.net/edisn/32/18826_2.png) [@Edisn](https://discourse.stonehearth.net/u/Edisn)\
**Post date:** [June 6, 2015, 3:45pm UTC](https://discourse.stonehearth.net/t/digging-slice-height/12935/6 "2015-06-06T15:45:02Z")

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@Tuhalu  
My main Concern is not the hight of 4, it is width/depth related.  
When you try to mine a starecase which goes down one slice it will be 5 blicks long. (Height of view slice)  
Which then conflicts with the 4x4 tool snapping at 4x4 grid.  
The starecase is 1 to long, meaning you have now to dig out 4x3x4 till the next grid point to continue using the tool.

@xXSlimeyXx  
thats what i thought of wen i mentioned i havent checked if the building tool would support something like this. (No clue how the tool works)

I actually have some high hopes because of the prommised modabillity.  
(I like DwaftFortress [Bay12] and minecraft [Mojang], and whisched for somthing like Dwaftfortress with a litle better graphics, or a minecraft strategy, but Towns and Gnomoria wasent Convincing there, …)

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**Author:** ![Tuhalu](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/flex022/user_avatar/discourse.stonehearth.net/tuhalu/32/44358_2.png) [@Tuhalu](https://discourse.stonehearth.net/u/Tuhalu)\
**Post date:** [June 6, 2015, 10:52pm UTC](https://discourse.stonehearth.net/t/digging-slice-height/12935/7 "2015-06-06T22:52:07Z")

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I think I see what you mean now Edisn. I recently had cause to try digging a stair some 30 tiles into the ground and it was quite annoying. Hopefully they’ll add some sort of stair digging tool when they add stairs for buildings.

Edit: It would also be very nice if there was some way to dig upwards between layers as well.

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**Author:** ![Teleros](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/flex022/user_avatar/discourse.stonehearth.net/teleros/32/63349_2.png) [@Teleros](https://discourse.stonehearth.net/u/Teleros)\
**Post date:** [June 7, 2015, 10:53am UTC](https://discourse.stonehearth.net/t/digging-slice-height/12935/8 "2015-06-07T10:53:09Z")

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> [@Tuhalu](#):
>
> I recently had cause to try digging a stair some 30 tiles into the ground and it was quite annoying.

Yeah I think I see the problem now. I’ve always tended to dig corridors then _build_ the stairs up 😛 .

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**Author:** ![RepeatPan](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/flex022/user_avatar/discourse.stonehearth.net/repeatpan/32/46418_2.png) [@RepeatPan](https://discourse.stonehearth.net/u/RepeatPan)\
**Post date:** [June 7, 2015, 10:56am UTC](https://discourse.stonehearth.net/t/digging-slice-height/12935/9 "2015-06-07T10:56:27Z")

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I’m not sure if it survived the recent start menu revamp, but the hotkey _N_ allowed you to mine a singel block, independent of any alignment. I’m somewhat sure that you were able to remove the single blocks with that, but it needed some planning of course.

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**Author:** ![Tuhalu](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/flex022/user_avatar/discourse.stonehearth.net/tuhalu/32/44358_2.png) [@Tuhalu](https://discourse.stonehearth.net/u/Tuhalu)\
**Post date:** [June 7, 2015, 12:02pm UTC](https://discourse.stonehearth.net/t/digging-slice-height/12935/10 "2015-06-07T12:02:17Z")

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[quote=“RepeatPan, post:9, topic:12935, full:true”]  
the hotkey _N_ allowed you to mine a singel block, independent of any alignment[/quote]  
Yes, you can do that and in fact there is an icon for it next in Harvest menu in r375. The problem is that you can’t dig what you can’t see.

You wind up having to chip out one level at a time and until you’ve cleared out most of the next level, you can’t dig out the last row next to the ceiling. Also, the camera really doesn’t handle that kind of tight descending space well at all, especially when it’s full of hearthlings chipping away in front of you. The end result is some really tedious and frustrating digging.

Here is an x-ray vision of the staircase I dug. The entrance at the top is at ground level, so I was working my way down through solid earth.

 ![](https://us1.discourse-cdn.com/flex022/uploads/stonehearth/original/3X/c/7/c7e5b9d614e1c6e5a46ccca60ad307df8b817e76.png)

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<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![coasterspaul](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/flex022/user_avatar/discourse.stonehearth.net/coasterspaul/32/47876_2.png) [@coasterspaul](https://discourse.stonehearth.net/u/coasterspaul)\
**Post date:** [June 7, 2015, 12:16pm UTC](https://discourse.stonehearth.net/t/digging-slice-height/12935/11 "2015-06-07T12:16:38Z")

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It would be really nice if we could offset the slice view in one-block increments in addition to the current five block increments. Otherwise the individual voxel mining tool is a pain to work with.

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<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![Tuhalu](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/flex022/user_avatar/discourse.stonehearth.net/tuhalu/32/44358_2.png) [@Tuhalu](https://discourse.stonehearth.net/u/Tuhalu)\
**Post date:** [June 7, 2015, 1:17pm UTC](https://discourse.stonehearth.net/t/digging-slice-height/12935/12 "2015-06-07T13:17:41Z")

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Yeah, being able to type the height you wanted to slice to would solve the problem for the current slice vision.

I think there needs to be a solution for x-ray vision too. As you can see in the previous picture I shared, it doesn’t handle stairs well at all in Full mode. It cuts away the roof on an underground room fine, but treats the “top” of the staircase as a wall. Furthermore, you can’t see any mining orders you make in x-ray vision. You have to be in slice mode or normal mode to see your mining orders.

In the following picture, you can see my hearthlings digging away at a new tunnel that I’ve ordered in x-ray vision mode, despite not being able to see what I am doing. I have the mining selection tool operating, so I should be able too see the mining orders, but I can’t. I can only see an order area while I’m dragging the order out from the wall.

Ideally, I should be able to see all the mining orders in x-ray vision, which would let me dig more easily in 3D in some cases. Obviously it wouldn’t be too useful if there was a lot of tunnels and caves around the area I was working on.

 ![](https://us1.discourse-cdn.com/flex022/uploads/stonehearth/original/3X/8/7/876a2298a14ed669284f92c68ace8020da3113a3.png)