Proper Snap-Grid Building for Less Micro

Call me a weirdo, but I like my bases pretty. I like to arrange my factories in neat rows with energy plants in between them, with metal storage units on the far ends and missile turrets lining the way. I like building convenient little power-plant clusters and snapping walls together and, generally speaking, building bases.

The problem I keep running into, however, is that while the current line-to-edge feature for cramming lines of buildings together does work, it feels... slippery. Like trying to balance a brick on a nail. You either have to shift-spam buildings haphazardly with great rapidity, or line out your commands in advance very, very slowly. This problem is most apparent when building walls.

I would like to propose an option for proper snap-to-grid building, using the dimensions already present; walls and small turrets are effectively 1x1, power plants and mexes 2x2, factories 4x4, and so on. This would only apply to lining up one building against an existing one, of course, so that you can still freely rotate the first building placed. Even if ONLY present as an option for walls, the ability to rapidly snap buildings together in lines and blocks would make base-building micro much easier and help speed the game up without forcing players to just spew buildings willy-nilly, especially in later stages.

I asked here:
https://forums.uberent.com/threads/2-types-of-grid-questions.52850/

Response seems to be, you are not alone


I would at least like to see where and where I cannot build.
And at least align to latitude/longitude...

I agree.

It would be difficult to do a grid as it get progressively messier the farther away from the equator you are.

I think it'd be much more feasible to refine the current system, things like holding Ctrl when choosing the Orientation of a building snaps it to a specific subset of angles, like every 30 degrees. and haivng it so then when using other buildings as a reference it could snap so that corners aline and such.

Mike

The lack of grid makes it feel very willy-nilly when it comes to building placement.
Like there isn't a sort of level of control and practicability in terms of where to place a building and where it can be rotated for optimal placement.

It's a game style, and I can respect that.
I just personally squirm every time I have to base-build with this game.

I don't think there should be any grid for your first building placement. This is because a grid gets messy when you are near the poles. But we could have a grid which only applies when building structures near other structures, this can work because the terrain is flat locally.

Just implement Drag&Drop: https://forums.uberent.com/threads/shift-drag-to-create-line-of-buildings-reducing-micro.53291/
It solves majority of issues that Grid tries to solve without creating nearly s much mess as the grid does.

I'm happy that there's no grid in PA. I like building pretty bases, too, but I find the ones I can make in PA pretty enough. The semi-chaos, yet actually organised structure of my bases look good in my opinion.

I should clarify that I don't mean to apply a grid to the entire planet; that'd be preposterous, of course! I meant applying a snap-grid to the existing function of lining buildings up against other buildings.

That does sound like it'd help for slapping down generators and walls, but does lend itself to a particular "style" of placement... namely, big blocks that may or may not be tactically unsound. Still, a solid option. Any improvements to the current system would be welcome.

The planet clearly has places where you can and cannot build.
Right now, it's frustrating to not know that.
And it's hard to have all your buildings line up for a compact, but efficient base for pathfinding.

The grid, should be a building footprint, +50% more that's a grid.


I think the StarCraft 2 executes this beautifully.


Simple
intuitive
not intrusive
and optional

That's a different kind of thing than what was being talked about. The game already shows where you can't build by turning the wireframe red if I recall correctly.

Mike

Yes, but it helps to know where it'll turn red/unbuildable in advance, particularly for the nebulous boundaries of rocky cliffs and chasms.

Maybe, but for PA because it's inherently not grid based, you wouldn't use a grid, more so just straight up highlighting relevant areas.

Mike

Nevertheless the game should be able (since it knows the footprint of a building) to show the areas where building is not placable at all. Showing a grid-like texture is only a simplification of any other solution to puts out a texture with valid building locations.

Basically you can apply SC2s solution and just remove the grid itself (or make it as small as necessary) it would still be very helpful.

i agree with this topic, i'm a bit maniacal on the edges when building my base, it's always a bit frustrating not being able to build perfectly square blocs of power plants ^_^

If that frustrates you then curved playing fields are not for you.

I see absolutely no reason to implement this.

There could be a way to utilize a cube-to-sphere projection grid. A way to focus the grid onto a specific structure would be very useful.

I want to see the terrain, and where I can and cannot built before I have to specifically mouse-over the area with my building-ghost.

But that's a separate problem from having or not having a grid.