Starting Sinple: A Platform?

[El Furioso]

Hi all,

 

Tried asking this on Discord and just got blown off, so I thought I'd try here. I think I've got the basics down of placing stuff, but as I'm trying to grow into item clipping and building up and outside, I'm just trying to get my head around some next steps. So can someone walk me through the right way to just build a platform? And what I mean by a platform is like a stage or dais -- a raised area of the floor that you can place stuff on, that's solid, and that isn't so high that it needs a stair, i.e. you can just walk right onto it. So it isn't a different level of floor (high vs. middle, vs. low).

 

Like this?

 

https://www.dropbox.com/s/gf3cplwkdbcngko/platform.jpg?dl=0

 

So you can take a Floor surface, drop it on the floor, then use Shift to raise it up in the air, right? But how do you fill in the sides so it's solid? And can you change the surface texture? I couldn't find any placeable versions of the Room Style floor textures, so can it be changed?

 

Baby steps, I figure LOL. :)

[Defeat All Snakes]

Press F3 to enable room clipping (the ability to move things past the boundaries of the room, allowing you to embed objects in the walls, floor and ceiling)

 

Press F1 to cycle through grid options until it says Grid Disabled (Allowing you to move things at will rather than having them snap to a position.)

 

Find something cool to use as a platform.  There's plenty of options, and now that you can sink things into the floor at whatever height you prefer, you shouldn't have any trouble.  Use a dock piece, a dumpster, a stone block, a set of crates, or go completely crazy and use an actual platform piece.  Wild!

 

While dragging objects on top of your new platform, it can be convenient to hit F5 until you're placing on Surface rather than floor, wall or ceiling.  That generally places the object on top of whatever you're dragging it onto automatically.  However, it can be finnicky and you may need to just shift-drag them up from the floor and manually place them (hold CTRL to move objects while keeping their height locked)

 

Hopefully that answers your question.  The picture was very informative.

[Raevyn_Darke]

I'm sorry you felt blown off on Discord. Generally the folks there are pretty outstanding at answering questions. Sometimes things do slip by if there's a lot going on, or if people are busy at the time, but I can assure you no one intended you to feel ignored. If you don't get the answer you need, it's best to just ask again in case it got missed the first time. I hope this doesn't cause you or anyone else to avoid the Discord thinking no one there wants to help, because that's most definitely not the case.

 

I checked back because I felt bad that we might have missed your question, and it seems like part of the issue was that the person who answered didn't understand exactly what you wanted. Seeing your question in a little more detail here, there's kind of a lot of pieces to it. Easy one first: no, unfortunately there aren't placeable versions of the room style textures, and the textures that you place can't be changed into other designs; what you see is what you get. We're all hoping pieces that match the room styles are available someday, but at this time they aren't.

 

Secondly, "filling in the sides" has a lot of possible answers and it really depends on the look you're going for. Some pieces (notably Docks) have a bottom, a top, and sides, so if you're not making a high platform, that alone might do the trick for you, or you could stack them on top of each other. Beyond that, you can go with Defeat's answer above and find an object you like to make your platform out of. (Back in the day, the most common choices were desks, bookshelves, and floor safes.)

 

Last, the part about "not so high that it needs a stair" is tricky. If a surface goes more than about shin-to-knee height above where you're standing (depending on character's height), your character won't just walk up. You'll have to jump to move onto the platform. For example, I've been working on a set of spiral stairs, and I have to do a second pass and place steps in between the ones I have now because they are too tall to walk up:

 

 

So to make a platform low enough to walk right up onto it, it probably won't look much like a platform. Your best bet is probably to place the platform at the height you want, and then if you need less than a full set of stairs to reach it, you can sink them into the floor until you get the height you want.

 

Hope this is helpful.  :)

 

 

[klokwerkaos]

I did answer your question.  And I'll say it again here:  You can select the floor as an object and click what layers appear with the object window.  You can build whatever you want with the controls in the sticky notes.  It was clear from your post you didn't read how the controls work, and without doing that basic bit of research there is very little anyone can do to help you. 

 

I pointed you to the answer, and since that question gets asked by every new person that comes it, there is a sticky that answers it.  As far as how to do it, it's like legos man, you stick stuff together to build whatever you want.  Use whatever pieces you like to make the thing look like how you want.

 

If you see something specific you think is cool and you're not sure how to build it the way they did, you ask them and they will probably get you an answer in a reasonable amount of time.

 

Outside of sitting at your computer and doing it for you while you watch, that's literally all there is to learn.

 

I'm not sure if you didn't understand what I said, or will understand this, but literally anyone on the discord is happy to help, but if you don't take the time to learn the basic controls there is very little anyone can do to help you.

[Raevyn_Darke]

I didn't read the question as so much about controls, since OP said they knew Shift+Drag raised items. I took it more as a question about the various items in the base builder and if they can be altered. Either way, the answer should be covered now. :)

[El Furioso]

I did answer your question.  And I'll say it again here:  You can select the floor as an object and click what layers appear with the object window.  You can build whatever you want with the controls in the sticky notes.  It was clear from your post you didn't read how the controls work, and without doing that basic bit of research there is very little anyone can do to help you.

 

@klokwerkaos Congratulations on being an asshat to a total stranger in TWO different systems. :) It's pretty obvious that you DIDN'T really read my entire question -- you just jumped in, spouted off briefly, and then moved on to your own stuff. I mentioned using the controls right there in my text, so it's obvious I've read the stickies and understand. You just skipped over that part. I was asking specifically about alignment best practices and asset selection to get me to where I was trying to go... which you either missed, or simply ignored.

 

Which honestly, is cool. You're not obligated to answer my question. But how about just skipping past next time and not spending time being a jerk to someone who's honestly just asking for help?

 

@Raevyn_Darke I appreciate your help. :) I'm just trying to build a platform upon which to place my SG table, so yeah, making sure it's the right height so folks don't have to jump up to get to it, is (hopefully) my plan. I've been using tech containers (the bigger ones) for this purpose on a smaller scale (and then turning off clipping and sinking them into the ground), but trying to create something bigger is leaving me wondering what assets to use to get there. Hence the "filling in the sides", i.e. if I use a floor tile, then it's essentially 2-dimensional, so that space between the tile's edge and the floor needs to be covered, otherwise it's just floating there in space. :)

[Impish Kat]

What Raevyn has tried to tell you is that the measure for a PC's automatic step is quite small.  So anything you use will need to be sunk into the floor if that is your objective.

 

Personally, I would not use a floor tile for a platform.  I might use the roman blocks (though you need to fit them together because of missing sides), maybe a dock, or a tech platform, or even some of the stone blocks or altars in the arcane tab.  Heck, you could even use desks or cabinets.

 

You could always use a "foundation item" and then top it with a floor tile if you really really like the look of the floor tile.  Lay the foundation items, top with tiles, top with your decor/tables/whatnot.  To save item count, if you've used multiple items for the foundation; delete the middle foundation items but leave the ones along the edges.

 

No matter what you decide to use for your foundation, it will need to be sunk into the floor, or you will need to use stairs or ramps, to get that automatic step up.