What I think of the Build Hammer

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Keep in mind that I write this topic with the spirit of building on official PVP servers on PC. So my builds have the purpose of defence and strategy for player and raid encounters. I also use a keyboard and mouse.

I am for all intents and purposes the “builder” of my clan but have shared this responsibility with others, often we’d discuss designs, work on separate parts, together or individually. But I’ve probably spent the most time building in the clan while we’ve been together.

I’ve built, re-built, taken down, re-designed and assessed builds over and over. So I am very familiar with the spaces we choose. I know where to add a piece and its impact and understand what may happen. Call it “like the back of my hand” if you will.

So I’ve been visiting a few PVP servers since the lag issues levelled out with updates and finally spent quite a few separate plays and many hours now building. Some of my cursory looks have been confirmed but also some surprises.

I understand the concept that you can’t have light without some type of implement like a handheld torch; of course disregard light giving gear. I also understand that you can’t sword fight without a sword, so it stands to reason why a build hammer has a specific purpose: to initiate building. My first initial thoughts were “OMG NOT ANOTHER TOOL”. My feelings haven’t changed on that but ok, fine. I’ll begrudgingly accept it… I’m also not someone who shouts from rooftops “BACK IN MY DAY”, I’m adaptable.

What I can’t get passed though is the manoeuvrability issues. It’s janky, holding a tool or weapon makes your character in the way, it feels frozen and stiff. As mentioned in this thread. I can place pieces by letting the game jig the piece in, eventually the ghost finds its way. That is a bit better now but that is IF I can position myself properly to get it to actually do that. This is a time sink.

I’ve also noticed it has an issue with far vantage points, especially with height. It totally stands to reason and always has that if you’re too far it won’t work. But previously I could stand at the bottom of a particular location and I was always able to place pieces at the top. Now I have to build my own “scaffolding” and hope that I can position myself correctly. Sure, I can remove the scaffolding and rebuild it, section by section but I found it is a huge time sink.

With this manoeuvrability issue also comes with attempting to get things straight. Stacking chests for instance or benches so that they all fit properly. I have to allow the placement, then initiate the interactive menu to move and re-place the item. All. The. Time. So again, a time sink. How many times should I have to place a chest properly before it doesn’t look like my 3 year old cousin threw it on the pile right?

My other issue is why are some items in the build hammer menu while others are still only built at the artisan table or other tables? Take ladders for instance. Ladders were only craftable previously in the carpenters bench. Why are vaults only able to be made in the artisan table? Why not in the build hammer menu? Maybe I’m missing the point on this but y’know, just observations.

Some things still persist with building that were always an issue though… like gateframes. Why are they so damn hard to jig into the space? I know it fits but it just doesn’t want to do what I tell it to. That has always been a problem of course, mainly just an ongoing complaint.

On to the good stuff.

The UI of the build hammer is very organized and it is much easier to locate exactly what I need in a short time span. This is excellent. The submenus on the left make it easy to quickly break down information and they’re ordered well for the most part.

I like that you can remove placed pieces quickly by right clicking while hammer is active. A circled X appears and the ghost on the item shows red.

While this isn’t entirely a part of the building hammer itself: the change to refund items at full cost is amazing.

So, all in all?
I see the potential of it being faster but with my experience creating the same exact builds I actually spent double the time in completing the build because of the time sinks I mentioned.

Hopefully the jankiness and point of view will improve.

P.S. and sort of unrelated… it would be nice if we could assign a key to view building decay, stability and health without that damned repair hammer… sigh.

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If they’d let us go into 1st person view with the hammer, would that alleviate the issue any? IIRC, we can go 1st person with picks, hatchets and the like.

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This Construction hammer is taking a good bit to get used to. I am forcing my self to it on our private server’s. Had to replace several map rooms today some times it didn’t work well at all . On ps4 official servers pve-c… my wife is attempting to play on materials are being eaten up and after restarting furnaces ect are out on beach. Invisible doors don’t help. Long story short it is messy for everyone now. Ps you can go into first person with construction hammer. @Kikigirl @Rekt

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I’m able to go to 1st person with the construction hammer playing on PC.

Edit: missed the PS on the post by sestus.

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I’ll check out first person!

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Watching my wife do it before I posted

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I’ve found that existing veteran players have the most issues getting used to the new building system. Meanwhile newbie builders don’t seem to have that issue. A little after 3.0 came out, a friend of mine was interested in Conan again. He hadn’t played since before the jungle was added. And even then he handled none of the building our group did.

He tried it out and was a bit amused (or I should say pleasantly annoyed) when I asked him various questions about it. He seemed to like it over all. He had some issues with getting somethings to place because of stability issues. Specifically inverted wedge roofs. But those were things in the UI not being clear (and really haven’t ever with those blocks).

I will say when I first used this system it was a little wonky getting used to. I had issues with getting selecting building pieces quickly and getting used to the new keybinds. Mainly because I had keybind hints turned off. But after turning them on, I was able to learn them and turn that function back off. Then I started getting my workflow to be more efficient and I found I could build much quicker since I could just carry the materials on me and build what I need instead of constantly opening my inventory and searching a long list.

Tear downs got stupidly quick. Right click and start clicking the base and you can tear down a 50,000 block building in seconds instead of like 20-30 minutes.

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Proposal: NEW THRALL TYPE - CONSTRUCTION HELPER

Description: A construction helper is very skilled. He helps you with almost everything while you build, such as lift you up, pass you materials. And he works so smooth that you don’t even notice he’s there. It feels as if you are flying when he carries you on his shoulders.

How does it work: Grants you fly mode with the hammer when the thrall is following you (height limitations). Also grants you direct access to materials in his inventory to avoid overencumbrance (10 slots)

On the other matter:

That’s exactly what I am feeling too.
One must bear in mind that

  • “bedrolls” are handcrafted
  • “bed” is built with a hammer
  • “stylish beds” are crafted on an artisan bench

Also

  • “torch” is handcrafted
  • “placable torches” are built with a hammer
  • “wight torches” are crafted on an artisan bench
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The only good thing about the ‘new and improved’ build system is that I can bypass it completely in admin mode. Gave creative mode a week, builds took twice as long. Not a fan. If I want to move a workstation 2 inches to the left, I’m forced to hit remove or try and find enough floor space to temporarily shift it before readjusting.

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Ok so first person IS much easier and solved most of my issues. Thanks for the suggestion!

I will use this while inside and definitely for placing benches and what not.

But I won’t use it for outside while vulnerable. I play at full FOV and look around often because it being a PVP server and all. I need to be able to see around me in case of an engagement. Unfortunately that means I’ll need to deal with the issues.

I considered this as my problem initially but I tried to look at it with a sense of renewal. I know I won’t ever be able to change this as a whole which is why I accepted the building hammer. But, I think it still could benefit from improvements :slight_smile:

For real, I used the search and sort functions a lot but also became used to muscle memory. That’s why I like the new UI and the way they organized it, so much faster.

God I know I’ve seen buildings like this but never had one myself… probably because I never had seen the sense of it on a PVP server. I’m used to small to moderate bases, often hidden. But ya, crazy fast for tear down. I won’t have to worry so much about spending that time for tear downs as needed.

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I appreciate the idea but I can see much potential for exploitation in a PVP environment. I doubt they’d ever go for it for that reason alone.

Ok so I am not the only one perplexed by this XD
I can see the base starter items being handcrafted, that makes sense. Placing a bedroll if you get too far from initial spawn points is pretty important but it is still pretty quick to learn the necessary tools to make a building hammer.

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Thank you for this thorough analysis. As a PvP builder I completely understand what you’re talking about, and haven’t yet encountered these things, due to my basically not playing.

Edited, needed to refresh the thread. :slight_smile:

Workaround (I agree it could be fixed): For gate frames, if you can get into 1P, do this: put your toes where you want the piece to go. Look straight up, queue the piece for building. Look straight down, piece still queued up. Step back two block’s worth, about 5 meters. Look up, slowly bring down your reticle, and the piece should place. This all requires the necessary structural or foundational pieces in place with appropriate stability. This tip is a modified version of @Cauthey’s Golden Rule for Gates: always look up.

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@Barnes you think this would work on console also we have given up on gates? Used to remove part of the foundations to get on edge doesn’t seem to work anymore :confused:

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I don’t see why not. I always go to SP and sandbox with foundations if I run into a hard spot. On the PS it’s almost always due to how responsive are my controls, as we don’t have the same sensitivity by default as a mouse. So I need to make my controller super-sensitive, queue the piece, look up, down, step back, look up, then veeeery gradually down. Cauthey explained it as your Area of Influence keeps “tangential” or erroneous snapping from occurring, while simultaneously your snapping is perpendicular to your body.

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On Playstation I build only first person, it’s not allowed on pc?
The only situation I can’t go first person is in water, which is extremely difficult to see a bit high, later on I will share a photo to explain.
What it doesn’t exists is the altitude configuration on the first foundation. I tried all the buttons, but I cannot do it.

This :point_up_2:.
It just breaks balls, period. The whole new system is so flexible and advanced, but this remained a great issue still. However we have to say that triangle pieces attach easier now, they use to be a great pain too.

Now closing. I believe that they wanted to make it difficult for pvp @Kikigirl. In a lot of servers building through raid is against the rules and they are correct! But that’s another story, now 8f you decide to be builder you cannot be a focused fighter too and if you add the rush of the time it’s very easy to “loose it” if you’re attacked while building.
I can understand what you see difficult and maybe wrong, but i believe it’s fair. Now the builder is a builder, not a fighter anymore, yet you are way stronger than the old encumbrance build before, way stronger, to balance this they reduce the “focus”. This is my opinion.

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Thanks for the tip!

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This has always been a problem mitigated by keeping an eye on your surroundings :slight_smile: But I don’t think that Funcom intended for the issues I have presented to be specifically harder on those in PVP.

The fact is that you can be killed by other players at anytime, so it doesn’t matter if it is raid while building or not. I also usually don’t build while it is raid time as I’m engaging in PVP activities and also know that the vulnerability is much higher.

Definitely and being seasoned means that even in the old system, I could usually hold my own as long as long as I didn’t make mistakes. But even with the buffed stats and new system, I’ll still have the disadvantage of someone decked out in proper PVP spec and gear.

I love the suggestion of the FP and have been using it but I know the caveat of that while not protected by the build, out in the open. So I’ll just bear with the jankiness.

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Hard no from pvp. Too exploitable to hover over walls of enemies. We already have ToS keeping from protecting outer walls against spawn trees, dont need another exploitable mechanic replacing that.

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if it only worked within your own land claim it could work without being exploited although having said that they would have to be careful not to give super mario a new tool (for anyone that’s new that is a kill by jumping on heads)

An alternative type of scaffolding idea could be an elevator that you could stop anywhere and didnt block building on any side. This could also be useful for base repairs in high areas.

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It is for admin users not Official servers

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