Building multiple levels

[PulsemanUK]

I remember originally I would be able to build multiple levels so that you could have a second floor within the room. for the love of me I can't remember how to do it. Any help would be greatly apricated.

 

Thank you

 

[sykoholic001]

The "upper floor" has to be constructed from objects such as cabinets, desks, or counters, preferably something that has a visible top and bottom side. Place the object in the desired spot then hold SHIFT and right click (and hold) on the object. This will let you move the object vertically to the desired height. And then repeat.

[PulsemanUK]

Fantastic I knew it was do able just been a few years lol..

 

Thank you for your response!

[Redlynne]

Easiest way I always found to execute "raised flooring" in rooms would be to lift the big 32x32 (so one room block sized) white floor tile to the height of whatever I wanted to put "up high" and then simply maneuver it into place to use at the right height.  The white floor tile let you put stuff "on" it at the right height for a uniform "raised floor" to keep everything nice and simple.

 

As for materials ... I always liked the dark grained Small Bookcases from the Shelves tab (in alternating orientations so they'd be face-to-face and back-to-back) for EXPENSIVE wood flooring (the wood grain look was luxurious!), but that really ate into the polygon budget and could cause massive load lag in really large rooms/bases.

 

Another option was the Large Stone Block out of the Arcane tab.  They had beveled edges on them and were "polygon simple" enough that you could use lots of them to make floors without incurring load lag issues.  However, because of how they are shaped, I often found it necessary to conceal/make inobvious which wall they didn't quite abut up to with various bits of visual trickery, since the don't exactly match the size of the floor tiles that they occupy.  You can however place the adjacent to each other to make a continuous floor with beveled "grooves" in the flooring between blocks.  This item became my "go to" for building "raised floors" in Arcane thematic rooms.

 

Another option was the High Tech Container and High Tech Crate.  The "flatter" Containers could be used to make "narrow height raised floors" since they were shorter, but they created an issue because their tops were halfway between grid snaps for height, meaning that if you wanted to put something on top of them you needed to partially "sink" the item on top into the Containers so as to make it Look Right™ rather than simply having the item float a half foot in the air above the tops of the Containers.  The High Tech Crate, being a 4x4x4 object did not suffer this limitation and could be laid out in a "techy" floor grid pattern with ease.  In both cases, you had to put up with having a pale green "tech" floor ... although I suppose now you could recolor the crates to give them any color you wanted for your decor.  Either option looks "good enough" when laid out in arrays used for "raised flooring" in rooms.

[Guardia]

They have huge floor pieces in Surfaces, and the Dock pieces in Landscape and Platforms in Tech also work well.

 

I use the Dock pieces for most flooring, and drop Surfaces on top or bottom (via F5 Surface Attach mode) if I want a different look.

[Dynamistress]

Using multi-level construction is a great way to make even the smallest base plot into something quite useful.  But just how many levels can we do?  Does base-clipping apply to the vertical as well as horizontal and, if so, does that mean we can build higher and higher?

[OmegaX123]

You can build up past the roof (but there's a hacky way to do it, you have to fill a tile of a room into a column and put the base portal on top of that column via room clipping), but you need to either use in-base teleports to get up there afterwards, or leave the base teleporter up there after you do and use in-base teleports to get back into the actual confines of the proper base area.

[Redlynne]

you need to either use in-base teleports

 

This makes me wonder when someone is going to create a base that is all Rooms and no Doors connecting them, instead relying on in-base teleports to move between rooms.  Could make for a VERY confusing "maze feature" of a PvP oriented base, even if there is no Base PvP available.

[Dacy]

Typically, I put about three levels in a base; if you try to make more, you'll have less than 10 feet of clearance (the COT door works well for measuring this) and will start to run into clearance issues, even when your character isn't that high (the computer apparently has to allow for the possibility your character needs that much clearance). The cement walls, without most of the wooden paneling (just leave the same amount at the bottom as the top) works well as a measure of one level, and leaves room for a ceiling.

 

For floors, well, some people use the docks in Landscape to do floors and ceilings simultaneously. I find the big docks to be a bit thick for my liking; besides, I like light ceilings. I might use the dock to set the floor level until I have the surface covered in what I want the surface to be, though; although, usually, I'll just slide a piece of office flooring around (Ctrl is so helpful here, because then I know it's always at the same level no matter where I move it). If I use pieces for the ceiling, I tend to use the larger shower floor, in bathrooms, the underside of that is solid with no drain. They lay perfectly next to each other if you set your grid on 1/4.

 

You can build either above or below the base, too; you can move the base entry so that that's where you enter, if you wish, or you can access it with internal base porters. The base plot goes WAY up and down; the only thing to keep in mind is that you cannot build to the side of the rooms on the plot, you can only build up or down from whatever rooms you have. If you want to build higher (or lower) than the base itself, then you'll have to move something like a piece of flooring up or down to build on.

 

My best advice is learn all of the commands in editing the base, it will make life so much easier! :)

 

-Dacy