01/30/2015 Multi-Story Building Technical Issues

[Xsyon]

The Test Server is open the public with changes to the construction system ready for testing.

This thread is for reporting any technical problems encountered with these upcoming changes.

Here is a list of changes:

Placement and Movement
- Architecture system revised to allow for proper multi-story construction.
- Revised construction move panel allows for vertical movement.
- Construction move panel allows for turning snap to ground and floors on or off.
- Distance moved per click adjustable between 0.1 and 1.0 meters.
- Speed of construction ghost movement while holding down arrow buttons increased.
- Initial placement distance can be adjusted through the construction panel.
- Walls align with their center to floor edges for more flexible construction.
- Posts can be centered on the corners of Floor parts.
- Initial placement location can be adjusted by distance from player.
- Buildings and construction ghosts can be accessed from 16 meters away.

Terraforming
- Terraforming near building parts adjusted.
- Construction ghosts no longer block terraforming.
- Completed parts allow for nearby terraforming but prevent dirt touching the structure to be removed or lowered.
- Safety check prevents players from terraforming if they are not standing on ground.

Constraints
- Buildings can be placed partially sunken into the ground.
- Slope requirement for initial placement removed.
- Vertical limit for building based on skill level (currently 40 meters off ground at 100 skill).
- Buildings require proper support underneath them to be finalized.
- Dismantling blocked when causing invalid situations (floating building parts).
- Ramps and platforms can be built inside of Trusses.

Building Support Requirements
-Rooms (Individual buildings) support nothing
-Floors: support Rooms, Floors, Posts, Ramps, Platforms
-Walls: support Walls, Posts
-Roofs: support nothing, must be placed on the ground or a floor.
-Trusses: support Floors, Walls, Roofs, Trusses, Posts, Ramps, Platforms
-Posts: support Floors, Walls, Roofs, Trusses, Posts, Ramps, Platforms
-Ramps: support nothing
-Platforms: support Floors, Walls, Roofs, Trusses, Posts, Ramps, Platforms

Floors require a central support or all corner support.
Ramps and platforms require a central support and two corners or four corner support.
Posts require direct central support
All other parts require all corner support

Views
- Players see construction ghost outlines only for buildings belonging to their own tribe.
- Site ropes for construction projects in invalid positions show only for tribe members.
- Scaffold frames added as building part outlines while buildings are under construction.
- Construction ghost outlines placed in invalid locations render in red.
- Construction ghost outlines in valid locations that require building parts beneath to be completed first render in yellow.
- Construction ghost outlines ready to be finalized render in white / grey.

New Parts
- Construction Truss and Base Post parts added to support floors and multiple levels.
- Base Posts can be used to support a Roof or Truss to create interior spaces of any height.
- Cantilever Trusses added to allow for overhangs and spans such as balconies and bridges.\
- 8x8 Trusses added to allow for larger interior spaces without columns.

For testing only:
- All new parts auto-learned at 5 architecture skill.

Next Up
- Construction Movement panel improved
- Vertical limits may be increased up to 60 meters (15 stories).

[Bejaymac]

Bug Report time

The Height gauge under move is always one unit off unless you move the item horizontally, not sure if X & Z are also off as they are harder to check.

Decided to actually build the frames to carry on building, only I get "invalid location" every time I do, the frame is on the ground with it's height matching my ground height.

EDIT
It's not just the frames that wont build, anything "attached" to the ground gives an "invalid location" when you try to build it.

[Xsyon]

The Test Server has been restarted with the following changes:

- Banaya parts should all be auto-learned at 5 architecture skill to facilitate testing.
- Bug causing parts on the ground to not be completed corrected.

The current changes should be able to properly be tested now. Please report any bugs or problems with the above listed changes.

Thanks!

[Xsyon]

The Height gauge under move is always one unit off unless you move the item horizontally, not sure if X & Z are also off as they are harder to check.

Are you comparing the height to the height listed in the terraforming panel?

Are you seeing a problem with building parts on the ground, or off the ground, or both?

I'm not seeing any discrepancy. The height of the building part is based on its bottom center 'origin'. Please post more information or a specific location where you are seeing a discrepancy.

Thanks!

[Bejaymac]

The terraforming panel shows my ground surface to be 334.00, when I place a ghost and then open it's movement panel the height also shows as 334.00, but when I move the ghost up (or down) one unit (0.1 to 1.0) it still shows as 334.00.

An example is I have a frame and want to put a floor on top of it, I set the movement to 1.0 and click the up button once, the floor has now moved up 1 meter but still shows the height as 334.00 instead of 335.00. Click the up button again and it now shows 335.00, click it another two times and I can visually see the floor is at the right height, but the height is showing as 337.00, it's not until I move the floor NSEW on the horizontal that the height catches up and shows 338.00.

[Dabent]

Built the frame now I try to build on top of it and nothing. Nothing happens, can't open project nothing. I just don't get it I guess. What is the point of the frame if we can not build on top of it. I am trying to build a floor on a frame (banaya). I want to build on a frame and then remove the frame so I have a bridge.
Also way way to much of a pain in the ass spending hours pulling grass for a test server. Hows about unlimited resources on test server so we can test for you?

[Bejaymac]

Not sure what else was in the patch but it appears my height gauge is now registering the correct height.


Dabent I take it your standing under the frame trying to open the project on top of it, if that's the case then your not close enough to the "origin" to open the project, it appears to have a really small radius of operation from the "origin", roughly 3.5 meters, so if your feet aren't close enough it just wont open.
Oddly enough the cancel project has a much larger radius of operation.

[Xsyon]

A few changes have been patched:

- Height display update corrected.
- Buildings and construction ghosts can be accessed from 16 meters away.
- Terraforming near building parts adjusted.
- Construction ghosts no longer block terraforming.
- Completed parts allow for nearby terraforming but prevent dirt touching the structure to be removed or lowered.
- Dismantling blocked when causing invalid situations (floating building parts).

Note: I'll see what I can think of for players to have more resources for building. One solution is to ask a Guide (a support ticket would work) to come to the test server and spawn materials that you need.

[Bejaymac]

In the discussion thread I mentioned an issue with frames and ramps, if you head over to my place in 904 you'll see the issue for yourself.

What you will see is log walls 3 high, but the middle row has a hole in it where a frame is located, that frame is the only way I could figure out for getting support for the ramp and floor above. The problem is that ramps don't act as support for anything above them, so even if we had a 2x4x4 frame I still wouldn't be able to place it over the ramp, as it would be red.


Sariel dropped off some building mats for me yesterday and about an hour later I started getting ghosts behaving strangely, two log walls stayed yellow despite everything under them being completed, then a short while later every ghost turned red.
I logged off and then back on as I was sure it was a sync issue between the client and server, sure enough once back on every ghost was the correct color and I was able to carry on building, but it started to happen again after a short while. This time instead of the colors changing to block me from building, they changed to allow me to build, and yes that does mean building free standing objects with no support under them.

[Xsyon]

To Bejaymac:

Please give me an exact location to teleport to and I will check out your construction.

Regarding the change in states / colors: Do you recall what you were doing when this happened?

Did it happen while you were moving a structure?

Did it possibly happen while you crossed a zone boundary? (Zone boundaries are at 512, 512 as well as when a zone number changes)

When those two walls turned to yellow, did they stay yellow despite you continuing to move ghost projects, while other parts updated correctly?