[2023] Building is now impossible. Goodbye fun.

Originally posted by Kryzx: I was frustrated as well when my structures collapse due to being new at the game, but you can learn to mitigate it from your future base building. If I needed to remove a block, I typically would craft a quick frame block and highlight the area around that block to observe the stability in the region. If it was already purple/red (or even a very saturated yellow color since that's the borderline 2nd-to-last block before it crumbles), then I tried to find another way to add a pillar in that area to support it just for precaution.

Another option, especially helpful on non-horde bases you're making: If you haven't fully upgraded your base from the frame blocks or wood blocks, consider upgrading the vertical supports to the next tier (wood->cobblestone/concrete->steel) since those increase the amount of horizontal support. You can place more wood blocks supported with steel block vertical supports, up to 60 wood blocks! Upgrading from wood to cobble/concrete will provide enough support for 16 additional wood blocks (24 total on one support) if you don't have access to a lot of steel yet. Then you can just paint over them however you want and you won't be able to tell the difference anyways!

...or you could just enter the debug menu & turn on the "show stability" option to mitigate all of this (if you have the rights to anyways).

TFP (hell, even a modder) needs to make a tool that gives us the option to see the integrity in the first place. Maybe like a tape measure or a bubble/laser level tool?

Well, When you're placing blocks you can see the stability of the block you're about to place- Which is pretty close. It's pretty simple math stuff though if you don't mind calculating and counting.

As a quick not-representative-of-a-specific-block example:
Horizontal support = 400
Weight = 40
Result: Can support 10 blocks out from it's horizontal connection points.

Vertical support is effectively infinite as long as there is an unbroken line of blocks between the part you want supported and bedrock

Thing is, Not everyone thinks about all the extra things that add weight. Forge? Weight. Work bench? Weight. Chest? Weight. The player themselves? Weight. Vehicle? Weight.

So if you build that 400/40=10 row of blocks out, and then you go stand on the final block in the row it will collapse- Because with the added weight of the player, it's exceeded the horizontal support of the supporting pillar.


As far as I know, Building SI has not changed in any particular way since Alpha 15. It's been untouched and is basically in it's final state (Doesn't mean bugs can't crop up, though). Some material weights and support values have changed over time, but the actual mechanics behind how it all works is the same as A15, possibly even earlier than that.

Just shy of a year ago I wrote up a post explaining the most important facets of building mechanics, If you're(meaning anyone reading this) having trouble, I'd recommend giving it a read, and watching the video I link there and paying attention to the specific building mechanics of the video not the block support/weight values since the video is from A15.

This is the post in question:
https://steamcommunity.com/app/251570/discussions/0/3371530631540268241/#c3371530631540580882
Make sure to read Comment #7 in the same thread, 2 down from the one I linked directly to as it adds an important extra note.