I was thinking, I love the building tool in the game, HOWEVER I can’t deny, Sims 4 and other games like this make certain types of buildable objects as well, separate objects. Can you make stairs in the game? yes, but they’re just blocks, just like every other buildable part in the builder. It’s I’d love to have actual stairs, even platforms if possible, thinner than blocks more intricate and detailed than a simple block. You can already use other types of objects as stair alternatives like chests, so why can’t we just have actual stairs. I was thinking of different types of stairs for different areas of the building like a smell step for the front door, maybe ones that could be used to go up to a porch, interior stairs, etc. And platforms that could act as a floor for balconies and the like. the Fisher class can already walk onto it’s own fishing dock so why can’t we have other types of pathways and flooring for interiors and exteriors that attach to wall and block edges?
I’m not really able to make these things myself sadly as I would have no clue where to begin with this. But I’ve seen other ideas of mine come to fruition once I’ve talked about it here. So, why not put it out there? anyone want to take on this project?
just as a small reference for an idea. The guys here at Radiant Entertainment even alluded to this being a thing in early reference screenshots.
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Huh, neat idea. yeah thats possible and probably not -that- hard. but then i’d also include the platform you see behind it ((judging by the render 3x3 platform and 3 wide 2 long, 2 high should do it)
just make the collision box of the stairs be the same shape as the blocks they replace should work i think?
even for a complete beginner this should be doable with only minor hints here and there 
making the models look as cool as in the render would take longest.
So years ago PandemicArt sent me their Qubicle models of the stuff and I tried to get it to work in-game…
The problem is Stonehearth isn’t very flexible voxel-wise. Everything what is not a terrain or building block must be an entity so it has to be placed by hand and during the later building phase. It is technically possible but the amount of entities required to let’s say cover a roof with roof tiles in addition to the amount of time spent placing them makes it barely worth the effort. I’ve tried extending the building renderer to allow QB nodes but then I hit some serious performance problems, especially while dragging regions, not to mention the fact it leaves you with no control over rotation. And it would not work correctly with fluids because nothing really does, SH’s water is rather sketchy in its behaviour due to performance problems.
In other words: while it looks cool in concept art it would require remaking Stonehearth’s voxel engine to work as expected.
firstly very interesting. when you say they didn’t interact with fluids correctly, what do you mean exactly? those look like docks that would be placed in water, but they don’t seem like they would move a lot of water by placing them in the first place.
Secondly, I would NEVER request roof tiles that would be insane lol. I’m looking for placeable interior and exterior platforms for hearthlings to walk on. Stairs and like those docks you see. As I’ve said there are in fact examples of this already in mods like the archipelago mod which adds fishers dock as a placeable object that clings to the edge of a blocks and hovers over water while the posts below generate in the water upon placing them. while you can physically see them and interact with them with the mouse, they aren’t technically there i don’t think because they don’t make any impact on fluids. and if they do it’s so minimal i’ve never had an issue with them.
The problem here is how well an object tiles. While it’s quite easy to make a fixed size like above, making a modular per-block solution is much harder, not to mention placing entities on top of entities has never worked correctly in SH.
When it comes to fluids: they are repelled by a whole voxel or not at all. Objects smaller than a voxel will create an air pocket around them, what looks weird. The only alternative is to let water through, the problem is it will not block passing through an object by anything else (collision boxes are all-or-nothing).
You could have their collision type be “platform”
That lets water through (but the top side is walkable)
That said, it doesn’t really solve or fix all the other issues… But some few, very versatile entities wouldn’t be a bad idea… Like a small wooden step, or blocks (like 3x3 of a modular interior wooden platform, etc…) All of these could possibly be done I guess 
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while it is true entities ontop of entities don’t work great, you can still do it with things like crates, which I’ve done. Is it annoying to make a staircase out of crates? absolutely lol, was it worth it? mayhaps NOT but it was still funny to see it happen lol. But i wasn’t thinking about putting entities on top of entities in this case. I was thinking more like a stair entity on top of a block. I’m thinking the stairs would just add detail not fully replace the block structure in those areas itself. After all you can’t place entities in mid air you still need to place them on SOMETHING. Would it be awesome if I could place a stair piece on top of let’s say a fence? absolutely, but during the designing process of a build you can’t actually DO that. In order to place entities on top of another entity it has to have already been placed by a hearthling on the ground first. So entities on top of entities isn’t something I’m looking to do here. I want objects I can use during the designing part of the build and not have to think too much about it.
I think ace has ladders, including a 2 or 3 wide one, and it looks good as a stair step.
That render is not from radiant, it is fan made. Here some of his works, there are tons of stonehearth renders there: PandemicTyler - Hobbyist, General Artist | DeviantArt
but i’m not just looking for a stair steps I’m looking for the platforms at the top of the steps shown in those fan made pics. I’m looking for stone, wood, and clay variants, i’m looking for building pieces that can be used instead of exclusively using blocks for these kinds of areas of the builds.
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