Build Gun

Build Gun
Used for constructing or dismantling buildings and vehicles, applying Customizations, and placing Blueprints.
Unlocked by	Onboarding

A pioneer spinning a Build Gun in their hand.

A construction hologram.

The Build Gun is a tool pioneers can use to place, dismantle and customize buildings and vehicles. It projects a hologram showing where the buildable structure will be placed, and highlighting key features such as Conveyor and Pipeline inputs, outputs and power connectors. Valid placements appear blue, hard clearance appears red, and soft clearance appears yellow; the colors for all placement validities can be freely customized in Settings.

It is also the same tool that does resource scanning. The pioneer will equip the tool before exiting the drop-pod. The tool is not craftable and will still be equipped even after the pioneer respawns or dies. It also does not occupy any inventory slot.

The construction and dismantle range is 100 meters (12.5 foundation lengths).

Buildings can be rotated with (scroll) by default, 45° or 90° when placed on foundations. Additionally, when placing a foundation on another foundation, by using Ctrl, you can rotate the foundation in increments of 10° after which you can place a buildable.

The Build Gun cannot be used while swimming; but as long as the Pioneer is above the surface of the water, most buildings can be placed submerged.

Construction mode

Construction mode allows buildings to be constructed using materials in the inventory. There are various possible ways of entering construction mode:

• Selecting a building from the build menu (Q)
• Selecting a building bound to a hotbar (0–9)
• Copying a building using the building eyedropper ( click)
• Searching for and selecting a building in Quick Search (N)

It is unlocked after the pioneer has hand-mined Iron Ore for the first time, or if Onboarding was skipped, is always available.

Green snap guidelines will be visible to help align to inputs/outputs.

Certain buildables require multiple clicks to be built, such as Conveyor Poles, Ladders, Flood Light Towers, or Foundations when Zoop mode is enabled. The first click confirms the location, allowing the structure to be raised, rotated and/or angled. An option to hold the mouse down instead of clicking twice may be enabled in Settings.

Quick Switch allows similar buildings (such as Foundation sizes or Conveyor marks) to be cycled through by holding or pressing E.

Build modes, available for for most structural buildables such as Foundations, Walls, Conveyors, Pipelines and Hyper Tubes can be switched by holding or pressing R.

Conveyor Belts, Lifts, Pipelines, Power Poles and Miners can be upgraded or downgraded in place by selecting the new variant and aiming on the existing building. Walls have the same functionality, but Ctrl has to be held.

Build menu

The build menu Q contains all the unlocked buildings, sorted into tabs. Left-clicking a building selects it for construction, right-clicking shows additional options, such as viewing them in the Codex or adding them to the To Do List.

Hotbar shortcuts

Buildings can be bound to hotbars by hovering over them in the build menu and pressing the respective 0–9 key. Each building can only be bound to each hotbar once, but the same building can be bound to multiple hotbars. Once a building has been bound to a hotbar, it can be overwritten anytime, but a hotbar can never be cleared once anything has been bound to it. Inventory equipment cannot be bound to hotbars.

Buildings already bound to hotbars at the bottom of the screen can be then selected with the respective key. There are ten hotbars in total, which can be cycled through by Alt+ scrolling.

The default binds on the first hotbar are Power Line, Power Pole Mk.1, Conveyor Belt Mk.1 and Conveyor Pole, while the other nine hotbars are empty.

Building eyedropper

Aiming at any structure or blueprint and pressing will copy that structure or blueprint. Note that any configuration data, such as selected recipe or clock speed, is not copied.

Entering dismantle mode F previews which building is about to be copied. This can make it easier to pick the building you want, especially for small targets in cluttered areas.

Quick search

Quick search, accessed by N, allows any buildings to be searched up quicker than from the build menu. It additionally functions as a simple calculator, see controls for details.

Zoop

Zoop or Zooping refers to the ability to build multiple Buildables at one time, and may have been inspired by the popular use of the Smart Foundations Game Mod (now called Smart!).

The function name of "Zoop" came from CSS Game Designer Mark Hofma (see Trivia).

How to Zoop

• Zoop Build Mode is activated by tapping R Key to switch between Build Modes, or by pressing/holding the R Key to bring up the Radial Menu and selecting Zoop.
• You can only Zoop up to 10 at one time and only in one dimension (flat, vertical, etc.).
• In addition to Zooping horizontally with Foundations and Walls, you can also Zoop Vertically with Foundations / Ramps, Walls, and Pillars, up to a max of 10.

What can be Zooped

• You can Zoop Foundations, Ramps (both horizontally and diagonally), Walls, Roofs, Fences / Railings, Walkways / Catwalks, Pillars, Beams, Stackable Conveyor Poles, Stackable Hyper Tube Supports, Stackable Pipeline Supports, as well as Railway Pillars.
• When building your Railway, you can add Pillars vertically downward from Railway using Zooping in places that are best for aesthetics.
• Using Foundation fine rotations along with Vertical Zooping will allow building spiral columns, circles, or other great designs.
• When Zooping Ramps they will automatically snap diagonally and there is no need to build a flat foundation prior to build another Ramp.

What cannot be Zooped

• Buildings and Machines (like Constructors, Coal Generators, etc.) and Blueprints cannot be Zooped.

Hologram lock and nudge mode

• Pressing H in build or blueprint mode will lock the hologram in place, so its position can be inspected and adjusted.
• While the hologram is locked, the arrow keys ↑, ↓, ←, → will nudge (move) the hologram in 1m steps in a horizontal plane.
  • Optionally, holding Ctrl will nudge in 0.5m steps.
  • The maximum distance is limited to 8 meters or half of the width of the building, whichever is bigger.
  • Vertical nudging is not possible.
• Using (LMB) will place the building/blueprint as usual.

Dismantle mode

• Dismantle mode F allows player-built structures to be dismantled, returning 100% of the materials used to the Pioneer's inventory.
• It is unlocked after the pioneer steps out of the Drop-pod and listens to ADA's 'first objective' message. Dismantling the Drop-pod is required to obtain HUB Parts used to build The HUB. If Onboarding was skipped, Dismantle mode is always available.
• Dismantle mode has two modes: default mode and blueprint mode.
• Aiming at any building or blueprint, shows the items about to be refunded, which is useful for telling what is stored within Storage Containers. Holding down (LMB) for one second will dismantle the selected building.
  • Dismantling structures with anything stored within them refunds the contents as well. If there is not enough room in the inventory, a crate with the overflow resources will spawn instead.
• When in blueprint dismantle mode, clicking on any buildable in a blueprint will automatically select the entire blueprint and not just the buildable selected. if you dismantle some of a blueprint you can still select and dismantle the entire remaining part.

Mass dismantle

• By holding down Ctrl, up to 50 structures can be selected at once to dismantle.
• By letting go of Ctrl and pressing it again, aiming at selected buildings deselects them instead.

Dismantle filter

• When using Dismantle Mode, by using G the dismantle filter can be activated to only select buildings of the same type as the currently highlighted building.
• It is possible to select a blueprint as a filter and only dismantle the same blueprints only.

Invalid dismantle targets

The following are known invalid dismantle targets:

• Deployed placeable equipment, such as Portable Miner, Statues, Beacons, Boombox, but not the Factory Cart
• Integrated sub-buildings, such as HUB Biomass Burners, the HUB Terminal, Train Station and Freight Platform Integrated Platform Track or Railroad Switch Control
• Crates
• Crash Sites and surrounding wreckage
• Moving Trains
• Dropped items
• All non-buildings

Dismantling a sub-building will dismantle the parent building (if possible), otherwise dismantling will silently fail.

Customizer

Main article: Customizer

The Customizer allows the player to edit and apply color swatches, which affect the visual appearance of buildings and vehicles, apply materials to Foundations, Walls and Roofs and apply Patterns to Foundations. It is opened with X or by clicking its tab in the Build menu and unlocked in Tier 2 - Resource Sink Bonus Program.

Build clearance

Main article: Build clearance

Individual buildings' encroachments have a specific build clearance type (soft, hard, complex).

Trivia

• When exiting the drop-pod at the start of the game, the pioneer smooths down a partly loose sticker on the Build Gun/Resource Scanner. The sticker is a picture of Box Boy from Coffee Stain Studios' very first game, I Love Strawberries, released in 2010.
• The Build Gun has numerous lines of text printed on its casing.
  • SN: 0987654321
  • RU1F-M40
  • 41PH4-BUILD 1.0
  • 54L-T
• Snutt made the mass dismantle feature.
• Snutt mentions that the name for the function called Zoop came from came from CSS Game Designer Mark Hofma using Ladders and saying "Zoop".

Gallery

• 

  To add a building into to-do list, click on the '+' button as shown.

• 

  Carefully aim at the existing Power Line to dismantle it.

• 

  Aim the hologram at the side surface of the existing Smelter and hold the Snap to Guideline key to snap to it.

History

• Patch 0.8.3.1
  • Fixed CTRL Key getting stuck when building
  • Fixed bug where sampling buildings was not possible in some cases
  • Potential fix for Blueprint Sampling sometimes not working after loading a save
• Patch 0.8.2.2: The Build Gun now remembers its last used dismantle mode, such as blueprint dismantle, so you no longer need to switch to it every time the Build Gun is brought up
• Patch 0.8.2.0: When trying to dismantle invalid buildable's they will now redirect to the valid dismantlable (I.E. Like the Integrated train tracks or the Sub Buildings of the Hub, they will now dismantle the Train Station and the entire Hub respectively)
• Patch 0.8.0.0
  • Added the ability to lock a hologram in place with H by default while in Build Mode, allowing players to inspect the placement before building
  • Added the ability to nudge a locked hologram with the arrow keys by default, allowing players to adjust the placement before building
  • Added a Dismantle Filter to the Dismantle Mode, allowing the player to select a specific buildable to dismantle and ignore all other buildables
• Patch 0.7.0.2: Fixed Steel Wall skin pack having an incorrect icon in the build menu
• Patch 0.7.0.1: Fixed a bunch of Build Gun trace issues, Building and dismantling in Gas/Water should now work again
• Patch 0.7.0.0
  • Build Mode now prioritizes showing missing costs while building
  • Added option to only show missing cost when in Build Mode
• Patch 0.6.0.15: Fixed issue where the shopping list buttons would show up incorrectly in the Build Gun Build Menu
• Patch 0.6.0.12
  • Increased Build Gun build menu size to fit 6 items in a single row (Was 5 before)
  • Shortened build menu Category "Transportation" to "Transport"
  • Fixed an issue where the weapon crosshair would display while the Build Gun is active
• Patch 0.6.0.5: Fixed “Currently Building: BuildingName” appearing for a very short time when accessing Dismantle Mode
• Patch 0.6.0.4:
  • Fixed all build and dismantle interactions getting locked when entering a vehicle by pressing both Q and E at the same time
  • Fixed an issue where all player input would stop working if the Build Menu/Customizer was closed with the color picker open
• Patch 0.5.1.0: Changed so the snap guidelines always appear (The Green line to align to inputs/outputs)
• Patch 0.5.0.8: Fixed Build Gun looking weird during the Drop Pod Sequence (Planetfall)
• Patch 0.5.0.6
  • Added indicator for the HUD in Build Mode to display how many objects are being built when zooping
  • Potentially fixed a crash when Mass Dismantling
  • Fixed Hologram snapping always using automatic clearance snapping if a Multiplayer / Dedicated Server Client was building, it now updates settings between Client and Host/Server
• Patch 0.5.0.4:
  • Added some extra safety checks for dismantling to hopefully prevent some crashes
  • Changed so the snap guidelines always appear (The Green line to align to inputs/outputs)
• Patch 0.5.0.0:
  • Introduced Zooping Build Mode
    • You can now switch to the Zooping Build Mode by Tapping R to switch between build modes or by Holding R to bring up the selection wheel, this will allow you to build up to 10 pieces in any of the four cardinal directions.
    • There’s also a Vertical mode which is useful for certain buildings like foundations to build them on top of each other instead of in a direction.
  • Added new Category to the Build Menu titled Architecture and the following building types have been added to it
    • Frames
    • Roofs
    • Beams
    • Pillars
    • Attachments (Consisting of Railings and Barriers, Stairs, and Ladder)
    • Catwalks
    • Walkways
  • Updated mesh and textures for the Build Gun
  • Minor adjustments to naming and descriptions in the Build Menu
  • While in Mass Dismantle mode, holding ‘Mouse Button 4’ (side button) will only keep either the most common, or the first, building type selected for dismantle
    • This makes it easier to exclude accidental selections while Mass Dismantling a specific type of building
  • Vehicles can now be sampled the same way buildings can with the build gun/dismantle gun
  • Hotbars can now be switched while having the Build Gun out
  • You can now de-select buildings you’ve selected with Mass Dismantling by aiming at the specific building and tapping Ctrl
  • Many changes to the snapping for both holograms and buildings (Let us know if something doesn’t work anymore or worked better in the past)
  • Fixed Clearance boxes getting stuck when exiting the Build Gun after having used Quick Switch
• Patch 2018-10-11: Introduced

Early game development

Prior to Closed Alpha, the Build Gun first appeared in game by Sprint 6 (week 12).

• See also: Game Development - Build Gun