Is there a right way to construct houses?

Gameplay
#1

So I have played a few variations of the open alpha… but always hit this snag.
The current toolsets for making houses are horrible - Let me elaborate:

The set floor and set walls are great ways to quickly setup a building, however the walls setup in this fashion cannot be customized… Lets say I was 3 cubes of wall to follow a pillar. (as an example) and not only that, I cannot delete parts of the wall to make open windows or doorways either.

If I use the free standing walls, then I cannot properly setup roofs, and if I setup roofs using the regular means, I cannot customize them by adding little window rooflets either.

I could setup everything by pieces of brick by brick… but then the system wont allow me to add furniture windows or doors to the setup.

And then, even if I do complete the simple house constructions (I’m actually trying to create the design of the houses used by the stonehearth team on kickstarter -http://www.gamezombie.tv/wp-content/uploads/2014/10/Stonehearth.jpg ) Theres no gaurantee the NPCs will completely build it… Also, sometimes the house customize glitches… and fails… leaving the house not able to be removal - even if I choose to remove the houses - because the editor glitched out.

Is anyone else encountering issues like this? I know this is an Alpha, but just wondering - It sucks that I constantly have to restart the map to hopefully unglitch the editor.

#2

Building is a bit of trial and error at the moment. You got to throw your design against the wall and hopes it sticks. If not, back to the drawing board and try again.

That said, a few tips.

  • You can build windows and doors on slabs, It requires a special technique known as the Ghost Slab Technique (It’s more of a cheat, but it works)
  • If a design cannot be build in one piece, split it up in multiple buildings, often they can’t build it because they build things in the wrong order
  • Place ladders when it doesn’t get build. Often they cannot find a way to access a certain point (even if they actually can, the’re kind of dumb sometimes).
  • Save before you build, if it fails. Reload and try again, They will often build your structure using a different approach when you reload.
  • Avoid using the destroy command from the console, it will destroy whatever you want to destroy, but it will generate errors in the long run.
  • Always make sure a room is accessible, whether it’s a hole in floor or a door.
  • Avoid connecting slabs on different floors with one another. I once connected the floor of my first floor with the floor of my second floor, They will try to build the entire thing first (both floors) and it made them unable to build the walls in between.

Ultimately, It’s a lot of experimenting and finding out what works for you and what doesn’t.

3 Likes
#3

I second all the tips RLG gave. One additional thing I do is no furniture during the building. I only place it after the building is finished. I found sometimes they would throw down a bed which would then end up in the way of the scaffolding they wanted to build and thus couldn’t ever finish building the house. Usually I do a basic planning with furniture to determine size and space, then undo and start over with no furniture.

2 Likes
#4

I think all these issues is because the housing data are still being stored in json files… Wondering when they will actually switch to a more appropriate format >____>

#5

While your workers build a house, you can still edit it.
You can delete window frames and doors.

1 Like
#6

What is this “Ghost Slab Technique” and does it still work in 0.11.0?

#7

hey there @SirStafford welcome to the discourse :smile:

heres the original thread, and it should still work,

#8

Oooooh man. Thank you so much. :smiley:

1 Like