Game mode: [(Online private)] Type of issue: [Buildings periodically exploding after a server restart: Bug] Server type: [PvE] Region: [America]
Within the last two server reboots parts of my base explode when I enter draw distance.
Please provide a step-by-step process of how the bug can be reproduced. The more details you provide us with the easier it will be for us to find and fix the bug:
Build base
travel away
use map room to nearby obelisk
enter draw distance and parts of base explode
I suspect the issue is the pillars somehow changing support values. I’ve inspected some and occasionally the support values are 100% at the pill then 80% then 20%, skipping 60% and 40%. When I remove the pillar and replace it sometimes this fixes it and the support works as normal.
But then I leave and come back and parts periodically explode off my base.
The end of April is the ONE YEAR ANNIVERSARY since this game went live, it’d be nice if so many basic features weren’t still so half baked.
I regularly experience a sort of “phantom explosion”, which - just as I log in - something in my base “explodes”, but nothing is actually missing. I’ve kinda tuned it out at this point, and don’t really notice it any more. Doesn’t really sound like the same thing though.
Zero mods, in fact I’ve refused to run any for this very reason, completely vanilla. In fact we recently (3 weeks) did a full server reset. Never had this issue before in the nearly two continuous years of running this server.
I have a separate job and haven’t had time for bug hunting until now. I’ve included pictures of finding pillars that mysteriously lose support and break things.
1st Pic: I found the last pillar in a stack with proper 100% support.
3rd Pic: I break the pillar and everything above it remains since there is a ceiling with support from the non buggy pillars next to it.
4th Pic: I replace the pillar and now it and everything above it are back to 100% support.
5th Pic: I hop up on the ceiling to the right to verify support on the pillars above.
This is NOT just pillars, but also happens with walls and ceilings. As stated before, this is a recently reset server with ZERO mods.
Also I wanted to mention, as I’ve dug into this I remembered coming across this issue before when creating “cells” in walls. (Basically a box with 4 walls, a floor a ceiling and a pillar through the middle.) When it works it’s structurally extremely stable, however this very issue began cropping up around the time of the Frozen North Expansion and did not exist prior to it.
Somehow when the engine is trying to figure out support on large and complicated structures, various walls, pillars and especially floors support values drop to ZERO and break. I had forgotten about it because I had moved to a more simple style of building using stacked foundations with walls attached as my primary support for my large bases.
Obviously now foundations are not nearly as good since you can’t attach walls anymore to add more protection and the also tend to be a bit of an eyesore for the same reason. Also when you build with stacked foundations, it’s very difficult to do any major base remodels since you break one and the whole stack comes down. However they never gave me any support issues what so ever.
But yes, while some pillars may look nice, to much, and to hight isn’t the top of stability mostly. Also i build with wedge, but mostly just for the eyes, and avoid place to precious stuff on them.
@Grey2142
Regarding walls on outside of foundations:
You can still achieve this if you place the walls first and then put the foundation in the middle of the walls. It’s a bit more work to do but achievable. Even lining the ground level foundation with the wall into the ground is possible.
Usually I use ceiling tiles supported by pillars to attached walls to above and below the ceiling tile and then add foundations to the existing walls.
If this doesn’t make sense then let me know and I’ll make a series of how-to-do screenshots for you.
I agree that wedges are easier on the eyes in regards to building variety, however I have to main issues with them. First they’re far to expensive resource wise for the amount of ground covered. Second and somewhat related their “support” cost is too high in relation to their size.
The advantage of using pillars between walls is the ceiling above them has 100% support instead of 80%, meaning the height of the structure would matter. In fact it’s the width of structures that provides the most building challenges support wise.
The issue I’m having this time around is I decided to push the envelope so to speak and build to the max support range of a square tower, which is 8x8 on the interior with double external walls, so the overall footprint is 10x10. This has given me some very large internal spaces and looks great, but at the cost of no margin error or bugs support wise. A 9x9 room is far more stable.
Honestly I wouldn’t have built as big as I did, but the damn map rooms are so over sized, so you pretty much need to if you want to include it in your base.
I appreciate the advice but I was already aware, in fact that’s exactly what I originally did, however I planned out my window and door placement poorly, and decided to try a remodel in place using pillars in place of the foundations to keep full stability. Also it’s a problem when you’re updating the walls on the foundations and it doesn’t remove the old walls, or if you remove one accidentally and then have to rebuild the entire stack in order to fix it.
Time wise it hasn’t been nearly as large a time sink as my old server, since gathering is x10 and I’m running a gather build, and it’s currently just sandstone as I don’t like risking high tier stuff on complicated builds until I’m sure the support is all good.
That said, typing this out made me think, I can probably salvage my current base build by removing all the interior stacks of pillars and ceiling between the walls and just replacing them with foundations again.
Funcom if you removed attaching walls to foundations was a PVP thing, please stop. 1. You’ll never balance PVP. 2. They’ll always complain.
Yes, the maproom is a pain if you want cover it.
All bases don’t have the place to put it anyway. So more a luxury for big-clans, or admin-bases and cities.
But yes, can be very challenging, build such biggies mostly in singleplayer, including trees, and all kind of stuff. It’s time and ressources consuming on servers, and not still fitting all playstyles.
But building and repair-hammer goes together, if you build big or small, never forget the damn hammer !
