Neat!
Does anyone else have some wall stacking tricks? A SG member of mine was wondering how people raise bridges in the large rooms without trix.
-MJB
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I don't know if anyone has mentioned this.. but you can place wall details on the inside and outsides of Cubicles.. though they will be a little off.. Like so:
http://i453.photobucket.com/albums/q...3-04-32-03.jpg
http://i453.photobucket.com/albums/q...3-04-32-15.jpg
http://i453.photobucket.com/albums/q...3-04-31-59.jpg
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Good one. Using the floor tile for vertical and the cubicles for horizontal positioning, placing wall items anywhere in the room is very easy now.
Thanks for the find.
I would like to say thanks to everyone who has discussed Stacking, Floating, Magic Desks, 2nd Floors, and/or who have submitted pictures of their work.
I just finished my first 2nd Floor Base Project, and found that all of the information you guys/gals have provided was quite helpful.
Again Thanks all!
Black-Strike: lvl 50 AR/Dark Corruptor
Brutally Beautiful: lvl 50 BA/Inv Brute
Seared Earth: lvl 50 EC/EA Dominator
Yashi Onuku: lvl 50 Ninja Blade/Ninjitsu Stalker
Death-Widow: lvl 50 Night Widow
Nice, that is going to save me so much time.
Thanks!
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I don't know if anyone has mentioned this.. but you can place wall details on the inside and outsides of Cubicles.. though they will be a little off.. Like so:
http://i453.photobucket.com/albums/q...3-04-32-03.jpg
http://i453.photobucket.com/albums/q...3-04-32-15.jpg
http://i453.photobucket.com/albums/q...3-04-31-59.jpg
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Another brilliant find! Kudos!
Very cool, I think (assuming Comcrap ever lets me back on the internet at home) I'll be making use of that...I've an idea for placing the Warren's telepad-markers in front of the porters, but I didn't really want to build a buncha lamps and fight with the porter's bounding box. If I can hitch 'em to the side of a cubicle...fantastic, that'll be MUCH simpler.
I was going to check to see if anyone else found a way to do this after I stumbled across this trick. And happy to see there is a lot easier way. But after all the time I spent, no reason I shouldn't post a pic so others can see what a beginner can come up with. Incomplete as I adjusted heights and added cover over the standard teleporters to make them more retro techie, but fun look.
Can't wait to work on the multilevel room after this one....
http://i262.photobucket.com/albums/i...6-00-58-14.jpg
A gold-pressed Internet for you, Ex! this is going to save me SO FREAKING MUCH effort!
The cubicles are now my bestest friends 
Got the porter markers (what the heck are those things called?) up in record time with a combination of the accent lamp, floor tile and the cubicle...then went on to build 'false walls' out of bookshelves in record time, in Lilian's little 'apartment'...and then put pictures up 'on' those walls using the cubicles! I'll post pictures soon, the Warren is looking GREAT. Even if I do say so myself.
<QR> Wow... Just wow... I bow to Doomgineer's technical superiority.
All that is planned fails. All that is born dies.
All that is built crumbles. This will always be true.
But memories remain, And that is beautiful.
Great find on the cubicle!
The fact that you can place things on BOTH sides means I can get the cubicle to a spot I like, place items on the available surface, then rotate it and have more surface available without having to move the cubicle. ...Sweet...
A question was raised from another thread about using the lamps on small rooms with a 1 plot square width and maybe there will be others asking it so i thought it would be useful to copy this over here:
---------
The floor tile is the same size as 1 plot square and the editor doesn't let you grab an item at the point where you click it, it snaps you to a designated portion of the item. In the case of the floor tile, it puts it on one of the corners. And since an item has to be completely inside the room to place it, it gets tricky to ensure that while keeping the mouse cursor on the lamp column.
Larger rooms is fine if you put it somewhere in the center but any room with a 1 plot square width (1x1, 1x4 etc) will need extra care.
I found if you place the tile down first, then place the lamps approximately on this spot , give or take 1 ft in x,y then you can use normally. You will likely need to rotate the tile and adjust your camera angle to get most of it inside the room while keeping the mouse cursor on the lamp column as you drag to change the height.
Bad news is that you have to be mindful of camera angle and mouse cursor position even more so in any 1xN rooms, but good news is that once you know what works, it's still makes it easier to stack. Just a bit more of a learning curve there but doesn't take long to get a handle on it.
That's what i did to make that 1x1 apartment. It's easier if you have more plot squares to work with like a 1x2 or longer.
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Neat!
Does anyone else have some wall stacking tricks? A SG member of mine was wondering how people raise bridges in the large rooms without trix.
-MJB
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Hey. I'm not sure if this helps . or has been posted b4, my search fu is lacking this early.. but..
I have been using the wall details Super Group Banner to add my bridges and misc to my base.
first
second
third
As you can see in the third photo, The modern art wall detail adds a greater surface area to use to add bridges and anything else instead of using the small safes. But I do get definite use out of the safes for the small junk.
*bonus tip* the same safe stacks on its self so no need to purchase moar than one at a time 
delicate touch picture i saw has that small box with pipe lines going down the wall i am wondering which catagory on the place items inside sg base so i can use it. i also made a theatre in my base like where u go and in down in made the screen and speakers.
Seems some might need additional info on how to set up and use the lamp+tile method, so here's a follow-up with additional illustrative steps. Most is just a recap of what's in the thread so this is mainly for builders who are new to stacking.
I just want to preface this with a few things. Although i refer to it as a stacking "tool", it's not technically an integrated feature of the base editor. You can think of the lamp+tile as a makeshift freight elevator used to raise floor items to a desired height, with the lamp column as the hoist and the tile as the lift you place the objects on.
Also, it may sound complicated when described here but in-game it's actually quite simple but there is still a learning curve, not just in the stacking but also knowing which viewing angle is best to use. In i13, camera angle and mouse cursor position is more significant in stacking than before. I'll explain more about that later.
If you're completely new to base building, i recommend familiarizing yourself with the base editor and its items or make use of various well-written guides. Basically practice and experimentation will help you just as much as descriptions, maybe more so.
LAMP+TILE STACKING TOOL
ITEMS NEEDED
There are other items you can use but i found using the Large Accent Lamp found in the Lighting tab makes for a preferable column because it has a small footprint compared to a column of floor safes and will not block your view of the room as much. And it is taller so when stacking the column to span the max height of the room, you'll only need 5 lamps instead of 12 floor safes.
The other item needed is the Floor Tile in the Room Details tab. This is your Virtual Floor where you place the floor items you wish to float.
It has some attributes that makes it ideal:
<ul type="square">[*]It has no thickness. I know the bounding box in the pic shows it is 1 ft (1 ft = smallest grid increment) thick but if you notice the actual tile graphic is flat at the bottom of it. Now that we can merge items together, when you stack items on top of that tile at the same level as the bottom of its bounding box, it will not raise the item's height. This is very useful in that you don't have to compensate for the thickness of your virtual floor when stacking, unlike back when using the old magic desk method.
I'll explain more as we go, but if you never used the magic desk trick, count yourself lucky now that you don't have to. [*]The graphic of the tile is a grid. You can use this to horizontally align objects, and with the 0 thickness of the tile, you can also use it to check items are vertically aligned as well.[*]Obvious attribute is it is large (1 plot square) in size. So it's much quicker to lay out multiple items.
That large size can also be a problem if you use this on rooms that are only 1 plot square wide (1x1, 1x4 etc) but it is still doable. Check out the post concerning that upthread.[/list]
SET UP AND USE
Setting up the tool only takes seconds once you get used to stacking and manipulating your viewing angle. If an angle is not working for you try another. Some of the screenshots in the following steps are at the same camera angle i used when i'm stacking/manipulating the items at that step, so you can start there if you wish.
<ul type="square">[*]1) First find an open spot to set up the lamp column. Since the tile takes up a plot square, for every 2x2 plot square area, you only really need to set up 1 lamp column in the middle.[*]2) Stack 5 large accent lamps to span the max height of the room. Or as high as you want to go if you changed the floor and ceiling heights.
* Notice there are gaps where the lamp legs meet. Those are fine as long as you keep the mouse cursor on the visible portion of the lamp graphic (legs) in those gaps. More explanations later.
* If you don't want the gaps you can take extra time and merge the lamps together. Instead of placing it on top of the last one, you move the cursor lower in the previous lamp's body till the second lamp sinks into the first. Having no gaps in the lamp column helps to keep the tile on the lamp when moving up and down the column. If the mouse cursor passes through the non-graphic portion the editor might snap the tile away from the lamps and further down the room so it might look like it jumps or glitches.
But setting this up does take extra time and may be more work than is necessary since if you just place care in keeping the mouse cursor on the visible portions, it should be fine.
[*]3) Place a floor tile on that lamp column, by dragging the tile up or down the lamp column while tracing the mouse cursor along the lamp graphic (visible portion) then let go at the height you want.
[*]4) Position the tile to the area you want to place the items by rotating the tile. If you need to fill in the gap to the wall, you can also shift the tile by dragging it onto itself.
* Remember one of its attributes is that it has no thickness, therefore dragging it onto itself does not raise the height so you can just shift that all over that room to fill in the gaps to the walls. But you can also place another floor tile on the first if you prefer.
[*]5) Finally, place your objects on the tile.
* If placing more items at that same height, just shift the tile again to where you need it, making sure your mouse cursor stays on the tile graphic of its previous location else it will snap to the floor. If you don't want that and you haven't let go yet just move the mouse over the previous location to raise it again or press ESC key to unselect it and redrag.
[*]6) Repeat from step 3 by dragging the tile over the lamp to set to a new height.[/list]
And that's basically it. You can change the height in 1ft increments to place objects close together and continue till your design starts to take shape to where you like the end result.
ADDITIONAL INFO
One of the advantages in i13 is that you don't have to destroy items below the ones you want to change or add to. You can build from top to bottom as before or from bottom up depending on what you're doing and what is more comfortable for you.
BUILD DOWN EXAMPLE
That entry portal i started looks nice but it's no good if you can't get to it. So we build stairs, in this case, from top to bottom using small arcane stone blocks.
<ul type="square">[*]Starting from the top, line up the tile first.[*]Then lower it by 1 ft before placing the next block.
* Since this is a makeshift stairs using stone blocks, offsetting each step by 1 ft increments allows characters to run up the finished stairs without having to jump.
[*]Repeat the process till the stairs is finished. Now people can
reach the exit portal. [/list]
BUILD UP EXAMPLE
Sometimes building from bottom up is an easier approach depending on what you're building. Having that freedom of choice in design approach is especially useful when you're design (like this one) isn't really planned and you're just building as you go.
So making the stairs on the other side we'll build up using wooden stairs in the Room Details tab.
<ul type="square">[*]Again we start by lining up the tile to where we want.
* The segments on the lamp graphic and the tile being razor thin makes for a good vertial and horizontal ruler to align your objects with.
[*]Once lined up, place the wooden stairs down.[*]Set the new tile height just above the last stairs.[*]Then place the stairs down.[*]Repeat till you've got all of them placed.[/list]
And the rest is just filling in the details or anything else you want to add, since with stacking you gain plenty more room to work with than you have without it. Even a 2x2 room can feel like it's larger than it is.
ADDING ITEMS AFTER BUILD
One of the nice things we can do after i13 is correct any mistake or place additional items on existing builds with minimal effort, compared to how it used to be when we had to tear down everything below the area you want to change.
For instance, to add a couple items inside the portal chamber, only needs a small open spot to set up the lamp column again. As long as it is visible and there are no other items with a "stackable" surface in the way, it should be fine since items with non-stackable surfaces will be treated as if they're not there and the lamp column stacks as normal.
Set the tile down, add additional items that you want and the exit chamber is updated without much trouble.
If there isn't an open spot directly under where you need the changes, you can still set up the lamp column elsewhere in the room and just shift over the tile after you set it at the right height.
IMPORTANCE OF VIEWING ANGLE
I've mentioned before it is more significant in stacking post i13, that's because there are more items now with stackable surfaces when before it was pretty much just the actual room parts (floor, wall, ceiling) but mostly now you can restack items on itself so if you drag the item and the mouse cursor is on a stackable surface item, the editor will lock onto it.
It's fine for the most part, unless you have other stackable surfaces near the ones you want to stack on, then the editor might lock onto those instead. So it might seem like sometimes it is glitchy.
Some viewing angles concerning the lamp column and setting a new height for the tile, works better than others and also depends on whether you're moving the tile height up or down.
In this example, notice the angle is pointing down. This means when i want to move the tile up, i am dragging the mouse over the only stackable surface between the cursor and the lamp (the lamp itself) so the tile moves up easily even though there is an item (Filing Cabinets) in between. The Filing Cabinet has no stackable surface so its treated as if it is not there when restacking the tile.
But if i wanted to move the tile down instead, tracing the mouse cursor down the lamp column from that angle crosses the corner of the existing floor tile (which is a stackable surface) so instead of moving down easily, it shifts over along the tile's previous position. But if i switch viewing angles to this, it moves down easily.
So experiment with angles and be mindful where you move the mouse cursor when restacking items.
* NOTE: Because camera control is important, you will be helping yourself greatly if you get some sort of flight power but preferably Hover. Flight is fine but since it glides a bit before stopping, it might get tricky to get the right angle you need. Hover provides that control, flight speed is not so important while editing since you can double-click on any floor in the base and you'll be teleported there. So even leveling a throw-away character to level 6 just to pick up hover will be all you need.
EXTRA TIP
This is something extra if you feel you need to use it but is not required. If you're creating an expansive build and want to keep track of certain heights, like for a uniformly leveled floors in a large room, you can set makeshift "bookmarks" using any flat item that has no stackable surface.
For this example i'm referring to the SG Floor Plate found in Room Details.
As you set your floor, add an sg floorplate with a visible logo to mark that floor. Repeat for any floor or height in general you want to get back to.
Then when you want to go back to a particular bookmark, just move the tile till you see the texture of the floorplate disappear, leaving just the logo or in this case the number, then you have a quick visual that you are at the right height and just add items as usual.
Or once you set the new floor height, add additional floor tiles and just shift those over to the places you want.
DISCLAIMER
Well that's all additional info relating to the lamp+tile use i can think of. I'm not good at writing guides so if there's any info i missed just let me know while i can still edit this post.
There are plenty of helpful folks willing to help, so just ask (preferably nicely)
Nice guide, Ex.
"...freedom isn't a commodity to compromise." -- Captain America, New Avengers #21
Guide to Base Teleporters
Thanks, hopefully that's enough info for new builders. Not used to posts that long, kept thinking i'm putting too much info hehe.
nice nice u should look at my enterance lol really nice but now i am interested in seeing if there going to add water inside the base because the only thing u can add something that looks like water is the slow field.
Very nice guide to this method! Might want to add how you can use the "current room" tab to bring up a particuliar item that maybe obscured or out of place. This helps to easily find it in a large/multi item build project allowing you to sell/delete, or help get the mouse pointer onto it.
Using this, I've also noticed I've "lost" some items while building, and found 'em in corners of my base... heh.
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And the floor tile stacks on itself without increasing the height, so you don't have to be careful in positioning it. If there's a gap, just stack another floor tile on the edge of the previous one and use that to fill in.
.
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Except the floor tiles will flicker a lot if overlapping.
This just saved me a ton of trouble, and made my base so much easier to navigate (I was able to add extra storage racks to a room, on the 2nd floor, while freeing up the general clutter on the ground floor). The lamps and floor-tile trick is GREAT, THANK YOU SO MUCH!
This is an excellent Thread - I fully approve of it.
I see alot of ways to measure heights, but how do you actually stack the stuff? Like, make a stone block sit on top of another one. Is there a way to copy and paste or a different way of doing it?
You simply place it on the floor tile, nothing strange about it.
Awesome technique there. Thank you for sharing with us.