Building Tricks & Tips

Title says it all, but I figured I’d create a new topic for all of us to share building tricks and tips.
So please feel free to explain or showcase your tricks/tips when it comes to building in No Man’s Sky.

I’ll start with a useful one below …

Got OCD?

Don’t like the weather when farming?

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I might be obtuse… But, I’m really in need of further explanation!

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Building dome does not remove outdoor crops? Nice one!

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Just a simple trick to allow crops to grow inside, so you are not affected by the planetary conditions. Plus you have all the crops nicely together, so less running around.

What I did here is on a Radiated planet, where Gamma Root can grow outside. So I place them nicely in a circle outside, using a big cylinder as a guide. I then remove the cylinder, place the dome on top and voilá, crops are now magically growing inside the dome. Any building would work for that matter. You can even get your Save Point to be inside this way. As long as you place it first, to then place something else over it.

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Floaties

Feel the crops are in the way?
Hard to reach for harvest?
Perhaps you like a more sci-fi flowerbed that defies gravity and doesn’t care for soil?

For those who do not mind farming their planet’s native crop outside, here is your solution! Get your Terrain Manipulator, place a chunk of soil in your preferred shape and size and plant your crops on top. Once done, simply use our wonderful recent ‘Undo’ solution and there ya go, floating crops!

More images

Use the Terrain Manipulator to place a chunk of soil

Plant crops

Use ‘Undo’

Wait for harvest from below

Edit: Floating inside will likely work as well, by using a combination of this trick with my previous one. I don’t think these crops care much to be honest :wink:

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images

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Enclosed Ladders

For my latest base build, I found a trick to make enclosed ladders to lead up to a room. I will explain below the image how to do this in a few different ways.

Extra info:

  • I am abusing a snap mechanic where Ladders snap to each other, but do not get deleted when not attached to a room/cuboid itself (floor/roof). They can then become an entity on their own.
  • Cylindrical Room Frames can attach to the bottom and top of a Cylindrical or Square Room to create an entrance/exit. A Cylindrical Room Frame is not considered a room, Ladders will not snap to them.
  • Cuboid Rooms can only be attached to the bottom of a Cylindrical or Square Room, but not when glass. Of course they can be attached to each other to create larger rooms.
  • Not affected by planetary conditions inside these enclosed stairs.

Up from a Room

Start with the below setup. The corridor to the right is just used as a snapping start to ensure positioning.

Go inside to place a Ladder, creating the opening in the roof of the Cylindrical Room.

Now make sure to snap a Ladder to the floor of the top Cylindrical Room.

Snap a Ladder in-between, aiming at the top Ladder. This will eventually create the separate Ladder entity.


Go back outside and remove the top room and both frames. You will notice how the Ladder sticks out the top of the roof and remained. This is what we will abuse :wink:

Place additional Ladders by snapping them on top, to the height you desire. These are all their own separate entities, they will only be removed when specifically deleted themselves.

Place Cylindrical Room Frames all the way up, until the topmost Ladder is covered.

Place a Cylindrical Room on top of that.

Go back inside and notice how the ladder that used to lead up, is now missing again. This is because we removed the requirement for it to be allowed to exist, by removing the Cylindrical Room Frame that was on top of the room. So we just place this Ladder again, to re-create the opening.

Notice how all the Ladders are still there?

Climb all the way to the top and make sure to aim at the floor of the topmost Cylindrical Room. Place a Ladder after having rotated it to face opposite the other Ladders that are already there. This should create an opening to the topmost room.

Now start placing Ladders almost all the way down, by snapping them to the one previously placed. You don’t want to place the last one at the bottom, or you will be trapped of course.

Looking back up, it shoud look like this.

Go back outside again to start deleting some of the Cylindrical Room Frames to reveal the stairs.

Make sure to keep the top and bottom Cylindrical Room Frame, or else there is no entrance/exit to the Ladders at either top or bottom. They are required in this setup.

Up from Cuboid

Start with the below setup. The corridor to the right is just used as a snapping start to ensure positioning.

Go inside to place a Ladder, creating the opening in the roof of the Cylindrical Room.

Now make sure to snap a Ladder to the floor of the top Cylindrical Room.

Snap a Ladder in-between, aiming at the top Ladder. This will eventually create the separate Ladder entity.


Go back outside and remove all, besides the Ladder.

Place additional Ladders by snapping them on top and one at the bottom.

Now use the Corridor to snap Cuboids in place to cover all the Ladders. Make sure the top one is not a Glass Cuboid.

Remove the Cuboid to the side, snap a Door in place and finish off with a Cylindrical Room on top.

Climb all the way to the top and make sure to aim at the floor of the topmost Cylindrical Room. Place a Ladder after having rotated it to face opposite the other Ladders that are already there. This should create an opening to the topmost room.

Now start placing Ladders almost all the way down, by snapping them to the one previously placed. You don’t want to place the last one at the bottom, or you will be trapped of course.

There you go, a Glass Cuboid covered ladder all the way up to the top room.

Up from the ground

Start with the below setup. The corridor to the right is just used as a snapping start to ensure positioning.

Go inside to place a Ladder, creating the opening in the roof of the Cylindrical Room.

Now make sure to snap a Ladder to the floor of the top Cylindrical Room.

Snap a Ladder in-between, aiming at the top Ladder. This will eventually create the separate Ladder entity.


Go back outside and remove all, besides the Ladder.

Place additional Ladders by snapping them on top and one at the bottom.

Now use the Corridor to snap Cuboids in place to cover all the Ladders. No Glass Cuboids are required, as these are only temporarily used.

Remove the Cuboid to the side, snap a Door in place and finish off with a Cylindrical Room on top.

Climb all the way to the top and make sure to aim at the floor of the topmost Cylindrical Room. Place a Ladder after having rotated it to face opposite the other Ladders that are already there. This should create an opening to the topmost room.

Now start placing Ladders almost all the way down, by snapping them to the one previously placed. You don’t want to place the last one at the bottom, or you will be trapped of course.

Go back outside.

Remove all the Cuboids, to reveal the Ladders, including the one below the top Cylindrical Room. Replace one Ladder at the top again, as that one got deleted by removing the topmost Cuboid due to the requirement now missing.

Place a Cylindrical Room Frame below the Cylindrical Room, by snapping it in place. This is required to be able to access the top room.

You now have the Ladders leading to the top room from the ground up.

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I just want to say that I LOVE this thread! :smile:

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Impressive.

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I love it too, the tips are invaluable and for a frugal builder like me they are indespensable.

Farming crops outside when they’re really outside is a game changer.

Oh and my Mother of God reply earned me another badge! (Nice Reply for 10 likes) so thank you everyone.

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Corridor Crops

Because Corridors float a bit above ground, it is easy to plant your ‘native’ crops in such a way, they end up completely inside your Corridor or halfway through if you wish. This is because crops do not care about collision as I have previously shown. All they require is surface soil to be aimed at to allow placement. Because of this, it is a whole lot easier to get them placed correctly from the outside, as you can place Corridors first, leaving you with less guessing of where they will end up. When planting ‘native’ crops on soil, they will always face you the same way and will show a full grown preview, which is very helpful.

Notes:

  • In this example I am on an Icy planet, with ‘native’ Frost Crystal, allowing to grow Frostwort on soil at your base.
  • Crops do have collision, which can differ for each type of crop. In this example there is some collision inside, even when the Frostwort has not fully grown to be visible inside. Keep this in mind.
  • Somewhat works with Cuboid Rooms, as crops can be placed close enough to clip through the walls.
  • This will not work with Rooms, as they are placed right on top of the surface. Crops can (usually) not be placed close enough to end up inside once fully grown. This will require careful guesswork to get them in the desired location, placing the Room afterwards, as shown in my first ‘trick’ using the Bio-Dome.

How-to

Place your Corridors

Line yourself up with the Corridor while aiming at the ground. Move your crop in the desired place. Pay close attention to how your crop clips through with the preview shown. This will help you to align your crops.

Fully inside


Half-way through


Not grown yet

Half grown

Fully grown and harvestable from the inside as well as outside.


PS:
How does ‘No-clip Crops’ sound for using these crop tricks?

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Ever wanted your base to have a cool looking and well-lit entrance? Had no issue doing this on a Square Room or Cuboid, but found Cylindrical Rooms to always end up crooked? Not been able to do this on the Main Base building as the door can not be removed to be placed after? Well, here is the best solution I could come up with so far!

Ceiling Light Entrance

Cylindrical Room / Base Root - Quick & Dirty

Once a door is placed, or can not be removed, as is the case with the Base Root, you will not be able to place the Ceiling Light.

So I use a trick to make this possible by placing something against the door that results in a flat surface parallel with the door, to allow me to place the Ceiling Light the correct way. In this case, I use the Weapon Rack.


Now I am able to place the Ceiling Light and have plenty surface to move it in place.


I then remove the Weapon Rack and all looks fine and dandy! … at first sight …


Hmmm, looks a bit awkward, doesn’t it? Give the ‘OCD’ way, described below a try!

Cylindrical Room / Base Root - OCD

I start from the inside of the Cylindrical Room instead; in this example the Base Root. Make sure to aim towards the top part of the door, so the preview will show the Weapon Rack being placed just a bit further inside. When aiming lower, you will see it clip through the, in this case orange colored, doorpost, which will affect the outcome. Make sure to have another exit available, as this one is temporarily blocked.

Now I go to the outside and line myself up, with the door only just being triggered to open up.

As you can see, it still does not let me place the Ceiling Light.

So I just place another Weapon Rack against the back of the one I previously placed on the inside.


Now it allows me to place the Ceiling Light. Just make sure to aim at the Weapon Rack through the open door. I focus on the top two bars from the light and in this case the orange rim for correct alignment.


Now just remove both the Weapon Racks and you are done.

As you can see it looks just a bit better than the ‘Quick & Dirty’ way described above. I gained a bit of extra space, having it attached at least :wink:

Square Room / Cuboid

As you can see, with a door attached already, it will not allow me to place the Ceiling Light.

So I just remove the door and place the Ceiling Light first.


It will still allow me to place the door afterwards, without issue.

I’ll add an Access Ramp as well.

There ya go, nice entrance :slight_smile:

This fits really nice and tight too!

The same steps can be followed when using a Cuboid Room.


Crooked Example (round surface)

Placement is easy when following the same steps for a Square Room or Cuboid Room as shown above. However, anything placed against a round surface, will never be perfectly ‘parallel’ or straight aligned and always flips over to either side. The result will then look like the image shows below. So follow the steps for either of the versions of the Cylindrical Room / Base Root examples above.

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A trick discovered back in December 2016, which allows to build in pretty much any angle you like, even upside-down! Figured I’d add it to this topic, even though not my discovery. The key to this trick is an Access Ramp, which can be rotated.

Start with for example a room/door + Access Ramp. Rotate the ramp down. Remove room/door and re-attach both door and room. Remove ramp to then re-attach and angle once more. Rinse repeat …

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Might as well add this Reddit post, which explains how to abuse a glitch to plant any crop regardless of biome. Also allows to build many building parts outside base limits. Not sure about possible consequences, so be warned:

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