Hey Guys,
We’d really appreciate your feedback on the Building UI in Alpha4 on Steam Unstable. As you use it for the first time, could you write down your impressions?And then use it a few more times (say five) and write down how you feel about it after using it for a while? If possible, try doing this without reading anyone else’s impressions first. 
–Stephanie
I just recorded a short YouTube video of it its rather bad ( need to get my mic to work right)
Had a good mess around with the building tool and have been able to create a few buildings with it, both big and small. So here is my feedback based on what I have experienced.
The building tool is well laid out I like the fact that it works in logical steps as you move between tabs to construct your buildings.
The ability to choose between manually deciding how walls will be built and automatically having it done is great love having the choice and both seem to work well. Maybe a 3rd option to automatically have it done for you but only on one side of a building would be nice to have, especially when creating buildings with multiple rooms that require multiple floor plans.
The undo button didn’t work too well for me 3 out of 4 times that I used it the game crashed to desktop.
Having the option to add doors and windows in the planning before the building is constructed is really nice especially as workers will leave holes where these objects will be placed.
My final suggestion is would it be possible for there to be the addition of a scale showing the length of the floor whilst placing it to help with making things the right shape and symmetrical, this way you can see at a glance if your floor plan is 5x5 or 10x5 without having to count voxels.
i haven’t had the opportunity to try the new tools yet, but this has been something we’ve discussed/requested on the discourse… and i absolutely second the motion! helps address the OCD builder in me… 
I think it would be a real useful feature for people to be able to walk through scaffold as alot of my characters seem to get stuck inside a partially built house
When you click the “Start Building” Button the window doesn’t close and is kind confusing… Other wise it works quiet nicely.
Just a quick note for the moment, should move it to a bug report later: the undo button causes the middle section to dissapear 
So, I’ve been playing around with it for a while now, and… honestly, I think it’s looking fine. The current alpha 4 build is of course pretty unstable and bug-ridden in general (duh, it’s an alpha 
), but I think it’s definitely promising. I think my main concern is that it seems too small and simplistic - we’re going to want some pretty impressive construction tools in the end*, so I’m guessing that the tool is going to undergo some pretty major redesign (rebuilding? 
) in the future.
*Import/export & copy structure for example, plus god-only-knows how many different building materials, additional floors, etc.
One thing I think it could do with right now though is a simple text display of the shape you’re drawing - just a “10x12” or whatever near your mouse would be fine.
This is a good point. Any other tools you guys imagine we will add to the building editor? Just to get the ideas sparking?
I would be expecting a way to change the angle of the roof, as sometimes a diagonal roof on a large floor is much too massive (Maybe a click and drag on the peak of the roof).
I’d also expect to see a way to make multi-floored buildings, and maybe a way to have the game auto-generate the roof, and then let the player tweak the generation, with a couple of options.
Here’s some inspiration for living hell to code:
http://www.hambleside-danelaw.co.uk/news/wp-content/uploads/2012/06/DVS_CareHome_Slough_2_crop.jpg
http://img.archiexpo.com/images_ae/photo-g/asphalt-roof-shingles-59586-3364199.jpg
Have fun!
@sdee et al: Gaslamp Games (Dungeons of Dredmor devs) are making a wacky 19th century imperialist DF-like game called Clockwork Empires, which will also allow for odd-shaped buildings. It may be worth having a look at their blog etc as they’ve had to develop a way to tile a texture over really odd-shaped roofs etc…
http://www.gaslampgames.com/blog/
http://www.gaslampgames.com/2013/10/16/how-to-debug-an-exploding-building/
http://www.gaslampgames.com/2014/06/04/dodos-buildings-and-the-road-to-alpha/
May be useful. If not, will at least be entertaining .
Hi Teleros. Super useful and also super entertaining. Gold star for you!
FYI, we can do these kinds of roofs in Stonehearth right now, we simply don’t have the UI for it exposed yet. Here’s a screenshot in case you were curious. Please keep the suggestions coming!
Glad I could be of assistance @Ponder .
On the subject of roofing… hmm, I wonder if a push/pull tool would be useful. For example, you want a traditional triangular cross-section to a roof, but a shallow one - and (gasp!) Stonehearth doesn’t have that option by default! Well, what if you could place a standard roof, then use a mouse* drag the peak up/down (or even side to side to have an asymmetric roof) to get what you wanted?
*Maybe keyboard commands too, ie enter “-5” in the Z offset box, because this might be easier than programming in the click-and-drag stuff for the mouse.
My OCD demands that you implement some sort of measuring overlay when placing the floor of buildings. All of my small houses must be 11 x 11 squares and I’m getting eye strain counting them all!
My OCD would also like for you to raise the door by one block and add a doorstep below it, or lower the z axis of the floors so that they are sunk in to the ground, so that there is not an immediate step up once you open the door.
My OCD cannot be reasoned with (I have tried), and as such I cannot accept responsibility for it!
your OCD and my OCD should go have lunch sometime… they have very similar preferences…
Would you mind if my OCD tags along as well?
Well, the new release is out, but this thread was about the tool in alpha 4, and we’re still in alpha 4, so I’m thinking it’s still good to talk about it here. I’m really digging the tool, even moreso now that the roof customization is in. There are two minor issues I’ve found, however.
All the same, overall I’m very happy with it, and it seems to work well. I’m excited to see more options for it later on—I think the framework in its current form should be able to support them, most likely.
