Building is one of the key gameplay elements in the game Planet Nomads. Building is crucial to exploring each planet and making things including Spaceships. In addition to regular-sized blocks, larger ones can be placed in order to construct things like Spaceships, Structures, and Vehicles
How to build in Survival[ | ]
Once you land on the planet you are given a limited amount of supplies, use them cautiously.
Your first building will be the Emergency 3D Printer because a 3D printer is required for all other buildings. Press B to open the block menu and double-click the first block in the list to activate it, then press B again to close the window. Now press 1 to select the printer and aim to the ground. Left-click to place it, then press T to select the Multitool and hold the left mouse button to finish it.
The next step is to let the printer make a few basic frames, to do that you press E to open the printer, select the frames, choose how many you want and click the button. Then you put the required resources into the printer inventory.
Place a few base foundation blocks to start building your base. The next machines should be a Bio Generator because most machines need energy, and a Medium 3D Printer because you will need parts that the emergency printer cannot make. Place these on your base foundation and finish them.
The last step in this short walk-through is to activate the medium printer. If you open it now using E it will show a warning because there is no power generator connected. Enter Build Vision to get access to the generator options (C) and click the power plug icon in a circle. The cursor will change to a power plug icon. Aim at the medium printer and click to connect/disconnect it. Then right-click to change the cursor back to default. Now the printer is ready to print the parts you need. Later you can deconstruct the emergency printer using the Multitool but for now you should keep it to help producing parts you need.
Advanced building tips[ | ]
Building split[ | ]
A building in Planet Nomads must be created starting from one block. If you remove blocks that connect two parts of a building you should take care to not remove the last block that connects those parts or you will split it in two separate buildings with no way back (version 0.6.7).
Step 1: 3 base foundations, 1 building
Step 2: foundation removed, split into 2 buildings
Step 3: new foundation built, still 2 buildings
A building split it not always a problem, but it can lead to unexpected behavior or "bugs". An example would be a storage box that can not see the mining machine although the player is sure that the mining machine is connected to the base via conveyors. In this case the mining machine is a separate building although the conveyors seem to fit perfectly. The only fix is to deconstruct the mining machine and check where the conveyors are broken, a part of them should fall down because that part is not connected to the original building.
To avoid base splitting you have to make sure that all parts are connected to each other. Add some basic armor blocks as scaffolding if you really have to split that conveyor. Or build all conveyors outside as two pipes side by side if you have the resources.
Colored blocks[ | ]
As of update 0.8.7.0 it is now possible to color any block or machine with the player's desired colour. Press the middle mouse button (MMB) to access the color picker and select desired color. MMB again to exit or click the cross and place the blocks/machines. To change the color of an existing block/machine without moving it, use the laser to revert it back to frame stage and weld again to complete with new color applied.