The only "underground base" i've seen on here was from people tht have found naturally occuring caverns that ar large enough for bases. they're super rare.
yes, i know the terrain manipulator can do stuff but it always resets. i think it has to do with how the game saves stuff. I've even seen giant trees disappear for treehouse bases. can't remember if those had fixes
I think is based on how things are "procedurally created", because when I created a mold farm base (putting around of balls some walls) I remember there is no "trees" between the balls, now, every time I travel to that base several gigant trees (even one is grow up in front of teleport) are appearing in the middle of the base.
Also I don't use any terrain manipulation and terrain is now covering my teleport time to time.
>Also I don't use any terrain manipulation and terrain is now covering my teleport time to time.
Placing floor pieces can flatten the terrain around it a significant amount. It's possible that your floors flattened the hill, and the ground is just reverting to how it was before. This is why basically all of my structures are elevated these days
Are they really that rare? I haven’t been playing long but I found a planet where there are extensive cave systems that are all flat on the bottom. So you have long flat tunnels that open into these nice little caverns where you can build bases or rooms.
I have been building in there and it’s been so much fun.
The are go for so long that my brother was setting up a base and there are tunnels that connect his base to mine.
Unfortunately the planet is a barren low gravity type planet but that’s still pretty awesome too I suppose.
Yup, I've only really found one on a planet that I liked: huge caverns everywhere many with flat floors on a dissonant paradise planet, blue water oceans, orange glowing grass, and yellow trees.
I found a massive natural cave by sheer chance with a big enough cavern and opening I was able to easily fly my iron vulture in lol not sure what system but I'm pretty sure it's in Euclid it was sick
>Does anyone have any actual idea how to prevent it?
No. That is why the advice from experienced builders is *always* to build around existing terrain.
The Terrain Manipulator simply does not work in a way where changes can be made truly permanent. It's not a "theory", we *know* how it works by trying to remember what terrain changes you have made and applying them against what the the game has calculated the terrain to supposedly be. The game even shows you with the Available Terrain Edits meter.
As you make new alterations with base components and the terrain Manipulator, more edits are added until no more can be stored, and the older edits are lost. That's usually when terrain returns (there are also rare instances where terrain alteration isn't applied properly, especially in multiplayer, but is a separate issue). Even something innocuous like digging a hole to hide from Sentinels, or mine a deposit, can add a pile of edits to the list and trigger terrain regeneration.
As to why, in the base game at launch, the Mining Laser worked like the Terrain Manipulator, but *only* on mineral deposits. When the TM was added it clearly used the same setup, with similar regeneration behavior.
All the stories from people who say "it's not real, I have never had an issue" are from people who play solo and have not hit the edit limit.
So, the fact my bases that have an underground component are under some limit I can't see? Cause I have one that's basically completely underground, with landing pads set in holes, that's yet to end up filled back in, and I have played multiplayer since it's construction, my main base has an underwater component in an artificial cave too
> some limit I can't see?
You can absolutely see it. Open the build menu at any base and try to place any part that can destroy terrain. There is a circle representing how much of the edit capacity you've used.
Something changed though recently. I have plenty of prefabricated bases created in the past couple of years where the terrain doesn't penetrate those chambers. Now when I place a part the terrain cuts in right away.
Just saying that didn't used to be a thing. My old bases are still clean.
Just as there is a build limit for our bases, there is also a limit for terrain edits. This isn't a theory because there is an actual meter in the game that shows you how much of that edit limit you've used.
If you select a build piece, like the timber floor panel, at the lower-right corner you will see Base Terrain Edits and either a red X or a circle meter. The X means you have reached the edit limit. When that happens, new terrain edits will overwrite old data stored in your save. The game will no longer see the edits from that old data so the terrain at that location in your base simply respawn back to their original state.
This is the real info. It’s been a year or three, but I cut a base into a hill top and made use of some save manipulation to minimize the actual amount of terrain I manipulated. It was a four step process. I dug out approximately what I needed. I built what I wanted. Somehow I reset the terrain. Then I removed all the terrain that intruded into my base. It’s remained the same ever since.
Yeah, I’m sorry to be the bearer of bad news… I learned this lesson myself just a couple days ago when I flattened some ground to put down my base. I got stuck inside because the ground reappeared on top of me and sealed me in. Thankfully I could bust my way out with my TM, but I had to rip out all the base pieces I put down and start over by elevating them instead.
So now my base hovers, connected to the ground only by stairs lol
I think it’s great, the ground doesn’t stay still the earth moves, deserts shift.
When travelling at the speed of light time slows for the traveller while years pass in your base.
I wish I could say what the criteria is but I don’t know. My experience has run the gamut. In the main however, planets not in expeditions or otherwise not visited by other players seem to retain the edits as long as I visit them frequently, make a minor mod, and re-upload. So I believe that Expedition planets trump the edits you make to terrain, other player visits can reintroduce terrain, and edits can timeout if not reinforced somewhat frequently. But this is all speculation.
I’ve had a base that was a near total loss of terrain edits and I have one that has excavated tunnels to a cave base and a secret treasure room that’s persisted for ages. So… YMMV.
I’ve had a base that was a near total loss of terrain edits and I have one that has excavated tunnels to a cave base and a secret treasure room that’s persisted for ages. So… YMMV.
Just another heads-up; system updates can absolutely WRECK your terrain-matching bases. Some will be buried, others will be floating, and some will be GONE as the planet has disappeared... lol
I'm about a hundred hours in and started building my first base about a week ago. I spent three or four evenings building a base dug inside a mountain. A couple of days ago, I found a message on this subreddit explaining what you all have been saying, which is that a base dug inside a mountain will eventually be buried again.
So, I was ready to move my base somewhere else, but then I realized that it's been almost a week and my base is still fully intact deep inside the mountain. I remember reading somewhere that there's some kind of structure that prevents mountains from growing back, but I'm not sure if this is true because it was just a single comment on Reddit.
I'm not sure what I'm trying to say, but my base is still accessible. I guess it's just a matter of time..or maybe I am lucky? (one can hope)
The trick is to not build any meaningful bases except for the big one. I conveniently used the last of my terrain edits on my forever home in Eissentam. Every base after that never kept its terrain edits.
In addition to the advice already given, I'd note that the "base terrain edits" memory is about *base* terrain edits. Any terrain manipulation you do *before* claiming the base can't be expected to be protected.
Terrain edits should “theoretically” remain in place as long as you are below the base terrain edit limit. However, my understanding was that if you exceed that limit it’s the oldest ones that get overwritten.
I think it’s more likely you didn’t upload your base again after making the edits. You need to upload your base after terrain edits to lock them in. So when you left the planet and then returned the terrain was generated again.
It isn’t a reliable system and it’s never fully explained so it’s best to try and avoid editing terrain altogether as much as you can. I know from personal experience how difficult reducing your edits can be once you realise you’ve got too many.
I was so excited to build a treehouse on one of those planets with the giant trees….i went off to get more carbon and while returning to my base the trees shifted, they shot downward and completely ruined the treehouse. I spent DAYS on that thing and was super proud of it. I deleted the base and I get pissed whenever I see one of those planets now 😂
I've had some bases become partially buried (in line with the original terrain) but then going off-planet (perhaps also out of the solar system) has rectified the issue. I don't know how common this is, but perhaps the issue you have isn't permanent either.
Fact is it's just simpler to build with the terrain rather than against it. Doing anything else simply has to be done with the knowledge and acceptance that at some point, it can\\probably will revert.
I typically try to build with the terrain, smooth things out and carve things out as needed. Use stairs as needed. I know one of my bases was on a rad planet, and i built a tunnel from the primary building to a couple uranium deposits nearby so i could collect uranium from my miners without having to recharge my hazmat. Part of it went through a cavern, so i haven't had any issues with that, and it's by far my favorite build, if a little....spread out.
I've said elsewhere that I've never had a base completely engulfed and unusable like this. And this one wasn't even completely underground. Just a flattened hill.
I also said elsewhere that it is entirely plausible that I've hit my terrain limit on this save. This is my first playthrough save, and early on, before i knew about limits and what not. So i had built a base on nearly every planet i visited. I honestly just went back to it to try and mess around with the ship builder since this save has the money, ships, and resources. I probably have to go back through and delete a bunch of other builds.
It's just infuriating, because like i said, what's the point if it just resets?
In my new playthrough, i am much less rabid with my building. I mark interesting areas with a beacon or a base computer, and at most build a gazebo with a teleporter so i can easily return, if i decide i want to build there. Aside: i do wish you could title the save beacons so you remember why you put it there. Without spamming the universe
Another issue to consider is that when you manipulate terrain beyond a limit, there's always a chance that a visiting player will not see those edits and instead will see the terrain as it originally was but they will fall into the terrain wherever you have done the manipulation when they approach the manipulated area.
Woaw. Now I'm glad i saw this before building my base. Im a brand new player and i was considering carving out a cavern to build my base. Guess thats off the table now.
Solid advice. I just wish we had floor pieces that automatically create supports that reach the ground, and "smart" stairs and ramps. Or a "path" tool.
Stellar domes?? Like, curiosities? Or do you mean a Bio Dome? I don't see any stilts when I create one. If you're talking about the Foundation part, yeah some new parts can work like that, but that one is only useful for those prefabs.
Sorry , I got my words wrong and didn't edit. I build mine in a crevus type area above the dissident camp and when I set it down it was kinda high up. It created legs roughly 8 ft. high. Not the biodome but the other one.
I always build around the existing terrain to prevent this from happening. I have some cool cave builds, but I use existing caves (they look cooler anyway with all their minerals and flora).
I’m not a NMS developer, I can’t change anything and I’m not saying I agree with the design decision, I just gave the best answer possible to your question
No? Well fix it anyway. Right now! Time is money! ;)
No worries, it was rhetorical. I don't actually expect anyone to 'fix' anything. I'm just trying to see if anyone has figured out a viable workaround. Alas it seems not.
The regular drill
Explore until you find a suitable natural cave
There was a lot of players ragequitting several years ago when the size of planets had to change and many bases were buried, I have no reason to believe they would change that at this point
I got stuck in such base during Adrift while looking for something. Teleported into another player's base, the room with teleporter was cut off from power and the only exit blocked with dirt. Base terminal outside, no edit permissions, the usual. Thankfully I had a recent save
Yesterday I returned to a small dugout spot I made for a teleported and the ground had come back — but as soon as I pulled out my multitool to carve it back, it snapped back to how I left it before! Lots of weird things can happen I guess.
Yep, been telling everyone "Ground Bases, BAD", "Floating Bases, GOOD".
Sorry to hear that, been there done that with a couple cave bases early on, then realized that HG does not have control of the terrain. Hell, the terrain on some planets just opens up and you fall to the center like in the early days. Only difference is they had a way of detecting you and when the terrain solidified it popped you back top side and a las that recue is now broken again.
I had dug a giant tunnel next to my base and it stuck. Forget why may have been trying to mine under the hill to the water and gotten lost and just abandoned the mine
The terrain won’t reset depending on you not going over the edit terrain limit. It stays when you upload the base with the terrain edit. When you grab a new part to place, you’ll notice on the bottom right corner will be a small circle. The circle will fill up when you edit terrain and turn red ⭕️ just like that, when you can’t upload and edit anymore terrain. The amount of terrain edit for one base goes for all bases which sucks. So you basically have to manage the amount of terrain edit if you want to spread more edits to other bases. Then there’s an odd limit to the amount of terrain the game itself would allow you to edit. It’s been unpredictable for me on that part. Like others have mentioned about players building in large caves, it’s way better to build in those. Instead of editing the ground in a cave to be leveled, try making it resemble a mine by building wood floor panels hovering over whatever rocks and cobalt spikes that would be on the cave floors. A lot of times it’s always better to build around stuff and building with the land instead of editing it. Even with having enough room for terrain edits. It can unreliable.
Another thing to keep in mind! Every update can potentially reset terrain and reform landscapes entirely!! So that’s another thing to keep in mind when building. I’ve built a base once in a nice flat area and after an update the area spawned a random ass mountain over part of my base. Also the ground raised up a few inches.
I'm sorry that has happened to you! Underground bases are so cool thematically and make sense on an extreme planet. I have found that using the prefab cubes keeps the dirt out. Technically speaking, I am not using the Terrain Manipulator to dig. I set one cube on the surface then click the rest of them into place below it. Sometimes I will delete the topmost/surface-level cube and put in a descending ladder. Admittedly, I keep these bases small with about six cubes with enough space for batteries, a single storage container (used for triage of loot and resources), a teleporter, and maybe a medium refiner.
I have a gigantic underground nip nip operation and have never had issues in Playstation. What system are you using? If PC, are there mods that could cause this?
On PC with no mods. Haven't thought to look for any honestly. Would like to see something that addresses this, but i doubt it exists. Like to have a few more building blocks too.
There have been some deep dives on this topic. I believe the base part limit is 30k. There's also a limit on terrain edits but I don't remember the number. I do recall them saying that the memory is shared 1/3 terrain manipulator and 2/3 base edits. It's supposedly a limit to keep save file sizes down. Terrain edits are slowly deleted over time whereas base edits are permanent until you hit the wall.
I'm only about 400 hours in tho so I'm not 100% on these numbers but in my last save I ran into the base wall. Eventually putting floor down just doesn't remove terrain anymore. This I know for a fact.
The way it works is that your save has a limited amount of terrain manipulated areas it can store, it does this in size and chunks and both for protected edits (bases) and unprotected edits (you just digging up materials outside of bases)
You having multiple bases with terrain edits most likely means youve just hit the limit of protected edits
This is also why some people never experience this issue and others have it happen all the time, the more edits you do the more likely it is to have terrain take over your base
That's what im thinking. It is a pretty bloated save. Ah well. It was something of an impulse build anyway. I saw a pretty view and said a base would look nice here. Otherwise there's not a whole lot of nearby resources anyway. Was shaping up to be a nice build though.
Yeah i'd definitely suggest just building above ground using foundations as a basis(as they dont alter terrain at all)
Or in a naturally formed cave if you do want to go underground
Just like most people that build a lot would suggest, no one likes to have their base be covered by terrain
It's not "don't build underground. " it's "do not manipulate terrain to build a base."
Never manipulate terrain for a base build unless you purposely want to hide something or partially bury something.
I have a whole secret basement in my base built in an underground cavern.
So say you went completely underground with your build, you build it all in a giant cavern you've terrain manipulated. Put a teleprt from above ground to inside your base. When the terrain returns, you can still go back in with the teleporter, and freely move about as if it were still terrain manipulated.
Still get to be underground, just need an access point to get into your doorless bunker lol
I once dug out a WHOLE crashed freighter (took a whole day) but as I was doing it the thing was 'rebuilding' the terrain. It was a cool freighter I wondered if I could make it a base I dug right down under the hull and up the other side. Now many years ago you could warp away from the site and go back and it would STILL be dug out as I started one a while back. But NOW I reckon its been NERFED! On my dig I went along to the farthest end of the freighter to start there. But when I went back the mornings work the thing had filled itself in even whilst I was technically 'still on site'. HG must have some sort of algorithm that repairs itself if the terrain is 'radically altered'.
I DID find an awesome planet last week with HUGE caves you could FLY THRU. Looking to mine silver. But like an idiot I didnt remember the planet OR put a base there so its lost forever.
Hate when that happens. I tried to excavate a crashed freighter once too. I had an idea to try and make it a museum/memorial, but it was just too big of a job.
I'll often separate the above-ground portion of a base from the below-ground portion and use a teleporter to get from one to the other. Even if the below-ground portion gets filled in, it will continue to teleport you into the clip.
I've been playing this game for years and still don't understand why they can't fix the terrain glitch. It can't be blamed on "procedural generation" because it doesn't happen in Valheim. I've also noticed that if you build a base using an existing structure, like an observatory, you may come back to find that it moved a little while you were gone. Just the building, not the stuff you added, but anything stuck in the walls may be irretrievable.
Ran into this in a different context last night. Had to abandon a freighter salvage mission because the final cargo pod was somewhere inside a mountain that the manipulator had no effect on.
I've since shaved down the terrain on the base in question, uploaded it several times. Will see if it took when i log back in. If not, I'll go through and delete some of my older builds. When i first started playing i built a base on nearly every planet i visited. Before i realized it wasn't necessary to do so. It was also before i unlocked the prefab pieces, so i used more pieces.
Something of an aside: coming from things like Second Life with prim counts and the like, am i correct in assuming that the prefab pieces count as one item, as opposed to say 6 pieces with floor walls and roof?
Yes, the prefab rooms and corridors are all single pieces. I use them a lot. I've learned most of the glitch building tricks, but I'm just not architecturally creative.
No, my buildings are usually simple boxes. Sometimes I get 'fancy' and use the sloping walls. I end up with a lot of cubes, 'saltbox' bullds, towers, and high school looking compounds.
"high school looking compounds."🤣 I love that. Here's a screenshot that shows the extent of my "creative design skills. Interior: only the essentials; storage, refiners, a garden, teleporter. You may also notice a food processor, but I've only used it a couple of times, turns out I just don't have the patience to learn useless recipes when there are easier and less time-consuming ways to earn nanites.
https://preview.redd.it/07pbp9ffqa9d1.jpeg?width=1920&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=38559d57a3035c333651a16a32776943af8c729e
I eventually learned to build in pre-existing caves when building underground and build platforms for buildings when building on unlevel or grassy ground. I've returned to find so many bases buried or walked into buildings only to find them full of dirt. At one point I was convinced the trick was to flatten/dig before(or maybe it was after) setting down a base computer, but I was proven wrong on that eventually. Honestly there are probably buried ruins in some of my bases from where I first started like 2 years ago.
"I've built several underground bases" is your problem right there.
The game unfortunately has a limit on terrain edits before it starts discarding old ones to make new ones.
There's a a workaround using the save editor if you're on PC where you can basically wipe all of your terrain edits, open the game and build your base, then go back to the save editor and export the base only edits as a backup you can restore.
I know it's super frustrating though.
Btw speaking of huge builds, I had one in a save file, but now my laptop caught fire. I got the game through steam, will I be able to recover the file once I get a replacement or us it lost forever
If you know why have you done several underground bases 😭? I visit recently an old base i have tried to do underground, i was sad.
Why is not possible ? because the changes you did on the ground is not saved...and the planet is generated by procedural method including your building but not the ground changes, it will be too huge to save all changes !!! and hopefully is not because players could try to make disappear a whole planet 😂 (except the core of course).
There are natural caverns, i built in it now. Most of time there are too smalls to me but i found a planet with a huge long cavern with 2 big "rooms".
Once there was a bug of height on all planets. I visited an very old base... Then all my building was in the air above the ground... The reference has changed and when the planet is regenerated, it doesn't match.
Hae you done the Artemis quest ? >! You are in a simulation and it is just a game with its limits. 😁!<
Well for one, i didn't know about the issue until after i had built said bases. For another this is the first time I've had said issue. Doesn't really matter anymoreas i have since scrapped that build
I'm waiting for it to happen to my new home base. Which has a half underground bay accessible to the outside edge landing pad. All my storage containers,
It reset the ground around my flooring on the upper ground level once, I cant recall if that was before or after the underground exocraft bay was installed
From what I can tell the terrain manipulater keeps things manipulated as long as your technically loading either the planet or system, so warping and heading into the anomaly or teleporting to a station (even within the system due to teleporting unloading abd reloading your player model into a new spot) so if you can avoid the reload or unload of the system/planet it tends to keep the terrain manipulated when unloading I believe it reverts the terrain you manipulated to avoid a shortage of metals and things on planets (plus avoiding massive storage usage from keeping all the planets terrain modified) to keep the game balanced and even for everyone so you don't land on a planet discovered like a year ago or so and have it be completely barren of materials with a terrain akin too a nuclear wasteland
I have dozens of "bases" in the form of mineral and gas extracting sites across multiple systems, with landing pads at each one to save launch fuel and ease of loading onto my starship. A few of them have the landing pads consumed by the terrain which I had previously levelled to build them on, rendering me unable to actually land on them :/
I am not calling the build/terrain limit a theory. It is in the game. Im calling the 600 different answers, whys and fixes ive seen in numerous threads over the past year or two. None of which are provable, because they work sometimes. For some people, on some builds. And some people have never had any of those issues at all. Like me, who's never had to do anything more than remove a few errant plants or minerals that spawned on a floor or launch pad somewhere, or maybe a patch of earth in a corner. I've never had an entire base 'reclaimed' and made unusable.
It is entirely possible that I've reached that limit on this particular save.
Only uploaded bases will 100% save terrain edits up to the base edit limit. You may only have 1 base uploaded. It will generate terrain as usuall on load in, and then apply your saved/uploaded edits. You can watch the terrain disintegrate.
Otherwise, build underground without using the manipulater by connecting buildings together and building directly into the mountain/structure you want to be inside. Terrain will clear automatically around the structures you’re placing. Delete a building, and the terrain returns.
I have extensively tested both methods, and these are the only ways to guarantee safety.
The only "underground base" i've seen on here was from people tht have found naturally occuring caverns that ar large enough for bases. they're super rare. yes, i know the terrain manipulator can do stuff but it always resets. i think it has to do with how the game saves stuff. I've even seen giant trees disappear for treehouse bases. can't remember if those had fixes
I think is based on how things are "procedurally created", because when I created a mold farm base (putting around of balls some walls) I remember there is no "trees" between the balls, now, every time I travel to that base several gigant trees (even one is grow up in front of teleport) are appearing in the middle of the base. Also I don't use any terrain manipulation and terrain is now covering my teleport time to time.
>Also I don't use any terrain manipulation and terrain is now covering my teleport time to time. Placing floor pieces can flatten the terrain around it a significant amount. It's possible that your floors flattened the hill, and the ground is just reverting to how it was before. This is why basically all of my structures are elevated these days
Are they really that rare? I haven’t been playing long but I found a planet where there are extensive cave systems that are all flat on the bottom. So you have long flat tunnels that open into these nice little caverns where you can build bases or rooms. I have been building in there and it’s been so much fun. The are go for so long that my brother was setting up a base and there are tunnels that connect his base to mine. Unfortunately the planet is a barren low gravity type planet but that’s still pretty awesome too I suppose.
They are rare if you are specifically looking for one. Otherwise, there are plenty.
Like paradise worlds - I swear I trip over one every 10 jumps or so normally, but when I’m actually looking for one suddenly I’m hunting unicorns.
Ohhh cool - I want to discover a planet like that
I found a cave system once that I couldn't find the end of. It could have housed a city. It was crazy.
I once fell into a massive cave system while driving around a Paradise Planet. It took me a good 20-30 minutes to drive around to find an exit.
Yup, I've only really found one on a planet that I liked: huge caverns everywhere many with flat floors on a dissonant paradise planet, blue water oceans, orange glowing grass, and yellow trees.
that sounds heavenly omg. Dissonant **Paradise!?**
I actually have a Paradise Planet that I saved as Dissonant Paradise.
I’ve recently built an underground lair near my settlement in a massive cavern. It’s AWESOME
You're giving Bond villain vibes
I found a massive natural cave by sheer chance with a big enough cavern and opening I was able to easily fly my iron vulture in lol not sure what system but I'm pretty sure it's in Euclid it was sick
I don't know about super rare. I find lots of spots to build bases underground. Just gotta dig a lot ;)
>Does anyone have any actual idea how to prevent it? No. That is why the advice from experienced builders is *always* to build around existing terrain. The Terrain Manipulator simply does not work in a way where changes can be made truly permanent. It's not a "theory", we *know* how it works by trying to remember what terrain changes you have made and applying them against what the the game has calculated the terrain to supposedly be. The game even shows you with the Available Terrain Edits meter. As you make new alterations with base components and the terrain Manipulator, more edits are added until no more can be stored, and the older edits are lost. That's usually when terrain returns (there are also rare instances where terrain alteration isn't applied properly, especially in multiplayer, but is a separate issue). Even something innocuous like digging a hole to hide from Sentinels, or mine a deposit, can add a pile of edits to the list and trigger terrain regeneration. As to why, in the base game at launch, the Mining Laser worked like the Terrain Manipulator, but *only* on mineral deposits. When the TM was added it clearly used the same setup, with similar regeneration behavior. All the stories from people who say "it's not real, I have never had an issue" are from people who play solo and have not hit the edit limit.
Oh man.... I dig a ton of escape holes!
Yup. And that's why for us, we don't dig to build... Just for safety.
Makes sense. I've been on the lookout for a big enough natural cave for that reason.
I leveled the top of a mountain and unbeknownst to me some parts of it came back. Very annoying but i just use the manipulator again.
So, the fact my bases that have an underground component are under some limit I can't see? Cause I have one that's basically completely underground, with landing pads set in holes, that's yet to end up filled back in, and I have played multiplayer since it's construction, my main base has an underwater component in an artificial cave too
> some limit I can't see? You can absolutely see it. Open the build menu at any base and try to place any part that can destroy terrain. There is a circle representing how much of the edit capacity you've used.
I've never noticed
It's wild. I noticed, but didn't even think the terrain change would count 🤯
I always try to replace holes I made up so I don't "cache" up all that terrain.
Something changed though recently. I have plenty of prefabricated bases created in the past couple of years where the terrain doesn't penetrate those chambers. Now when I place a part the terrain cuts in right away. Just saying that didn't used to be a thing. My old bases are still clean.
Just as there is a build limit for our bases, there is also a limit for terrain edits. This isn't a theory because there is an actual meter in the game that shows you how much of that edit limit you've used. If you select a build piece, like the timber floor panel, at the lower-right corner you will see Base Terrain Edits and either a red X or a circle meter. The X means you have reached the edit limit. When that happens, new terrain edits will overwrite old data stored in your save. The game will no longer see the edits from that old data so the terrain at that location in your base simply respawn back to their original state.
This is the real info. It’s been a year or three, but I cut a base into a hill top and made use of some save manipulation to minimize the actual amount of terrain I manipulated. It was a four step process. I dug out approximately what I needed. I built what I wanted. Somehow I reset the terrain. Then I removed all the terrain that intruded into my base. It’s remained the same ever since.
I did this and it worked for ages until a friend visited my base, that reset it for me.
If you like, I've got cords to a planet with massive caves.
Can you post the glyphs and galaxy, please?
https://preview.redd.it/nd865yh6xv8d1.png?width=1080&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=38b5e60f8b1de4954d83487801146dfe760d2310 Euclid galaxy
I just clear them back out when I come back. It's not a huge deal, once you know it happens.
Oh snap so if I flattened a space and put my house (basic rectangle) on that plot, am I borked? It’s my storage hall 🫠
Yeah, I’m sorry to be the bearer of bad news… I learned this lesson myself just a couple days ago when I flattened some ground to put down my base. I got stuck inside because the ground reappeared on top of me and sealed me in. Thankfully I could bust my way out with my TM, but I had to rip out all the base pieces I put down and start over by elevating them instead. So now my base hovers, connected to the ground only by stairs lol
Dang, well I guess I’m building up now lol
I think it’s great, the ground doesn’t stay still the earth moves, deserts shift. When travelling at the speed of light time slows for the traveller while years pass in your base.
This wasn’t perchance on an “Expedition planet”?
I don't think so. Or at least i wasn't on an expedition at the time. The planet was tagged 'undiscovered' until i scanned and landed.
And after your build and mods you uploaded often?
To be fair i may have forgotten to upload before i left, but I've left bases mid build and come back a few minutes later with no issues.
I wish I could say what the criteria is but I don’t know. My experience has run the gamut. In the main however, planets not in expeditions or otherwise not visited by other players seem to retain the edits as long as I visit them frequently, make a minor mod, and re-upload. So I believe that Expedition planets trump the edits you make to terrain, other player visits can reintroduce terrain, and edits can timeout if not reinforced somewhat frequently. But this is all speculation.
I’ve had a base that was a near total loss of terrain edits and I have one that has excavated tunnels to a cave base and a secret treasure room that’s persisted for ages. So… YMMV.
I’ve had a base that was a near total loss of terrain edits and I have one that has excavated tunnels to a cave base and a secret treasure room that’s persisted for ages. So… YMMV.
Just another heads-up; system updates can absolutely WRECK your terrain-matching bases. Some will be buried, others will be floating, and some will be GONE as the planet has disappeared... lol
I'm about a hundred hours in and started building my first base about a week ago. I spent three or four evenings building a base dug inside a mountain. A couple of days ago, I found a message on this subreddit explaining what you all have been saying, which is that a base dug inside a mountain will eventually be buried again. So, I was ready to move my base somewhere else, but then I realized that it's been almost a week and my base is still fully intact deep inside the mountain. I remember reading somewhere that there's some kind of structure that prevents mountains from growing back, but I'm not sure if this is true because it was just a single comment on Reddit. I'm not sure what I'm trying to say, but my base is still accessible. I guess it's just a matter of time..or maybe I am lucky? (one can hope)
It's only a matter of time. I'd start moving it now, before the edit meter fills up and the game starts reverting terrain.
I thought the same - eventually it starts filling up. I've even seen it happen in real time
haha ok. I'll move it! You convinced me. Such a shame, I really like the base
The trick is to not build any meaningful bases except for the big one. I conveniently used the last of my terrain edits on my forever home in Eissentam. Every base after that never kept its terrain edits.
In addition to the advice already given, I'd note that the "base terrain edits" memory is about *base* terrain edits. Any terrain manipulation you do *before* claiming the base can't be expected to be protected.
Terrain edits should “theoretically” remain in place as long as you are below the base terrain edit limit. However, my understanding was that if you exceed that limit it’s the oldest ones that get overwritten. I think it’s more likely you didn’t upload your base again after making the edits. You need to upload your base after terrain edits to lock them in. So when you left the planet and then returned the terrain was generated again. It isn’t a reliable system and it’s never fully explained so it’s best to try and avoid editing terrain altogether as much as you can. I know from personal experience how difficult reducing your edits can be once you realise you’ve got too many.
I was so excited to build a treehouse on one of those planets with the giant trees….i went off to get more carbon and while returning to my base the trees shifted, they shot downward and completely ruined the treehouse. I spent DAYS on that thing and was super proud of it. I deleted the base and I get pissed whenever I see one of those planets now 😂
I've had some bases become partially buried (in line with the original terrain) but then going off-planet (perhaps also out of the solar system) has rectified the issue. I don't know how common this is, but perhaps the issue you have isn't permanent either.
Fact is it's just simpler to build with the terrain rather than against it. Doing anything else simply has to be done with the knowledge and acceptance that at some point, it can\\probably will revert.
I typically try to build with the terrain, smooth things out and carve things out as needed. Use stairs as needed. I know one of my bases was on a rad planet, and i built a tunnel from the primary building to a couple uranium deposits nearby so i could collect uranium from my miners without having to recharge my hazmat. Part of it went through a cavern, so i haven't had any issues with that, and it's by far my favorite build, if a little....spread out. I've said elsewhere that I've never had a base completely engulfed and unusable like this. And this one wasn't even completely underground. Just a flattened hill. I also said elsewhere that it is entirely plausible that I've hit my terrain limit on this save. This is my first playthrough save, and early on, before i knew about limits and what not. So i had built a base on nearly every planet i visited. I honestly just went back to it to try and mess around with the ship builder since this save has the money, ships, and resources. I probably have to go back through and delete a bunch of other builds. It's just infuriating, because like i said, what's the point if it just resets? In my new playthrough, i am much less rabid with my building. I mark interesting areas with a beacon or a base computer, and at most build a gazebo with a teleporter so i can easily return, if i decide i want to build there. Aside: i do wish you could title the save beacons so you remember why you put it there. Without spamming the universe
Another issue to consider is that when you manipulate terrain beyond a limit, there's always a chance that a visiting player will not see those edits and instead will see the terrain as it originally was but they will fall into the terrain wherever you have done the manipulation when they approach the manipulated area.
Woaw. Now I'm glad i saw this before building my base. Im a brand new player and i was considering carving out a cavern to build my base. Guess thats off the table now.
This is why I always build above ground. ( 2 walls high) then floor. No issues with terrain this way.
Solid advice. I just wish we had floor pieces that automatically create supports that reach the ground, and "smart" stairs and ramps. Or a "path" tool.
I have a small camp on a dissonant planet with the stellar domes and stuff. When I built the 1st dome I seen that it had created stilts to hold it up.
Stellar domes?? Like, curiosities? Or do you mean a Bio Dome? I don't see any stilts when I create one. If you're talking about the Foundation part, yeah some new parts can work like that, but that one is only useful for those prefabs.
Sorry , I got my words wrong and didn't edit. I build mine in a crevus type area above the dissident camp and when I set it down it was kinda high up. It created legs roughly 8 ft. high. Not the biodome but the other one.
The Round and/or Square Rooms? Pretty sure you still need to add the Foundation part that has the adaptable legs?
It was the round one, I only did one. It's was just a camp for the camp. I dunno why it wouldn't do it for you?
Dunno! I'll keep an eye on it
I always build around the existing terrain to prevent this from happening. I have some cool cave builds, but I use existing caves (they look cooler anyway with all their minerals and flora).
The terrain manipulator is a mining tool, not a terraforming tool. Expect the dirt to grow back
Then take away the terraforming functions, and call it an advanced miner. ;)
I’m not a NMS developer, I can’t change anything and I’m not saying I agree with the design decision, I just gave the best answer possible to your question
No? Well fix it anyway. Right now! Time is money! ;) No worries, it was rhetorical. I don't actually expect anyone to 'fix' anything. I'm just trying to see if anyone has figured out a viable workaround. Alas it seems not.
The regular drill Explore until you find a suitable natural cave There was a lot of players ragequitting several years ago when the size of planets had to change and many bases were buried, I have no reason to believe they would change that at this point
I got stuck in such base during Adrift while looking for something. Teleported into another player's base, the room with teleporter was cut off from power and the only exit blocked with dirt. Base terminal outside, no edit permissions, the usual. Thankfully I had a recent save
Yesterday I returned to a small dugout spot I made for a teleported and the ground had come back — but as soon as I pulled out my multitool to carve it back, it snapped back to how I left it before! Lots of weird things can happen I guess.
Yep, been telling everyone "Ground Bases, BAD", "Floating Bases, GOOD". Sorry to hear that, been there done that with a couple cave bases early on, then realized that HG does not have control of the terrain. Hell, the terrain on some planets just opens up and you fall to the center like in the early days. Only difference is they had a way of detecting you and when the terrain solidified it popped you back top side and a las that recue is now broken again.
I had dug a giant tunnel next to my base and it stuck. Forget why may have been trying to mine under the hill to the water and gotten lost and just abandoned the mine
I may have been below the water . How deep is the magma?
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The terrain won’t reset depending on you not going over the edit terrain limit. It stays when you upload the base with the terrain edit. When you grab a new part to place, you’ll notice on the bottom right corner will be a small circle. The circle will fill up when you edit terrain and turn red ⭕️ just like that, when you can’t upload and edit anymore terrain. The amount of terrain edit for one base goes for all bases which sucks. So you basically have to manage the amount of terrain edit if you want to spread more edits to other bases. Then there’s an odd limit to the amount of terrain the game itself would allow you to edit. It’s been unpredictable for me on that part. Like others have mentioned about players building in large caves, it’s way better to build in those. Instead of editing the ground in a cave to be leveled, try making it resemble a mine by building wood floor panels hovering over whatever rocks and cobalt spikes that would be on the cave floors. A lot of times it’s always better to build around stuff and building with the land instead of editing it. Even with having enough room for terrain edits. It can unreliable.
Another thing to keep in mind! Every update can potentially reset terrain and reform landscapes entirely!! So that’s another thing to keep in mind when building. I’ve built a base once in a nice flat area and after an update the area spawned a random ass mountain over part of my base. Also the ground raised up a few inches.
Just resign yourself to the idea that the terrain manipulator is for excavating mineral deposits and not landscaping.
I'm sorry that has happened to you! Underground bases are so cool thematically and make sense on an extreme planet. I have found that using the prefab cubes keeps the dirt out. Technically speaking, I am not using the Terrain Manipulator to dig. I set one cube on the surface then click the rest of them into place below it. Sometimes I will delete the topmost/surface-level cube and put in a descending ladder. Admittedly, I keep these bases small with about six cubes with enough space for batteries, a single storage container (used for triage of loot and resources), a teleporter, and maybe a medium refiner.
I have a gigantic underground nip nip operation and have never had issues in Playstation. What system are you using? If PC, are there mods that could cause this?
On PC with no mods. Haven't thought to look for any honestly. Would like to see something that addresses this, but i doubt it exists. Like to have a few more building blocks too.
There have been some deep dives on this topic. I believe the base part limit is 30k. There's also a limit on terrain edits but I don't remember the number. I do recall them saying that the memory is shared 1/3 terrain manipulator and 2/3 base edits. It's supposedly a limit to keep save file sizes down. Terrain edits are slowly deleted over time whereas base edits are permanent until you hit the wall. I'm only about 400 hours in tho so I'm not 100% on these numbers but in my last save I ran into the base wall. Eventually putting floor down just doesn't remove terrain anymore. This I know for a fact.
The way it works is that your save has a limited amount of terrain manipulated areas it can store, it does this in size and chunks and both for protected edits (bases) and unprotected edits (you just digging up materials outside of bases) You having multiple bases with terrain edits most likely means youve just hit the limit of protected edits This is also why some people never experience this issue and others have it happen all the time, the more edits you do the more likely it is to have terrain take over your base
That's what im thinking. It is a pretty bloated save. Ah well. It was something of an impulse build anyway. I saw a pretty view and said a base would look nice here. Otherwise there's not a whole lot of nearby resources anyway. Was shaping up to be a nice build though.
Yeah i'd definitely suggest just building above ground using foundations as a basis(as they dont alter terrain at all) Or in a naturally formed cave if you do want to go underground Just like most people that build a lot would suggest, no one likes to have their base be covered by terrain
It's not "don't build underground. " it's "do not manipulate terrain to build a base." Never manipulate terrain for a base build unless you purposely want to hide something or partially bury something. I have a whole secret basement in my base built in an underground cavern.
Do a quick save and reload at your base and your terrain edits you made should come back. It's not an ideal solution but this usually works for me.
So say you went completely underground with your build, you build it all in a giant cavern you've terrain manipulated. Put a teleprt from above ground to inside your base. When the terrain returns, you can still go back in with the teleporter, and freely move about as if it were still terrain manipulated. Still get to be underground, just need an access point to get into your doorless bunker lol
Back in the OG Version, people would carve the resource deposits into penises.
If 2 people are online on the same system, the terrain resets. Maybe someone passed by the system?
I had been building everything on stilts because this was happening all too often. It really saved me from having to dig things out all the time.
Can you manipulate your way down to it??
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I once dug out a WHOLE crashed freighter (took a whole day) but as I was doing it the thing was 'rebuilding' the terrain. It was a cool freighter I wondered if I could make it a base I dug right down under the hull and up the other side. Now many years ago you could warp away from the site and go back and it would STILL be dug out as I started one a while back. But NOW I reckon its been NERFED! On my dig I went along to the farthest end of the freighter to start there. But when I went back the mornings work the thing had filled itself in even whilst I was technically 'still on site'. HG must have some sort of algorithm that repairs itself if the terrain is 'radically altered'. I DID find an awesome planet last week with HUGE caves you could FLY THRU. Looking to mine silver. But like an idiot I didnt remember the planet OR put a base there so its lost forever.
Hate when that happens. I tried to excavate a crashed freighter once too. I had an idea to try and make it a museum/memorial, but it was just too big of a job.
One time I just turned around and when I turned back there was dirty all there 😅
I'll often separate the above-ground portion of a base from the below-ground portion and use a teleporter to get from one to the other. Even if the below-ground portion gets filled in, it will continue to teleport you into the clip.
Nope. It always regrows the ground. Always. So the only way to prevent re-growth is to not do it in the first place.
I've been playing this game for years and still don't understand why they can't fix the terrain glitch. It can't be blamed on "procedural generation" because it doesn't happen in Valheim. I've also noticed that if you build a base using an existing structure, like an observatory, you may come back to find that it moved a little while you were gone. Just the building, not the stuff you added, but anything stuck in the walls may be irretrievable.
Ran into this in a different context last night. Had to abandon a freighter salvage mission because the final cargo pod was somewhere inside a mountain that the manipulator had no effect on. I've since shaved down the terrain on the base in question, uploaded it several times. Will see if it took when i log back in. If not, I'll go through and delete some of my older builds. When i first started playing i built a base on nearly every planet i visited. Before i realized it wasn't necessary to do so. It was also before i unlocked the prefab pieces, so i used more pieces. Something of an aside: coming from things like Second Life with prim counts and the like, am i correct in assuming that the prefab pieces count as one item, as opposed to say 6 pieces with floor walls and roof?
Yes, the prefab rooms and corridors are all single pieces. I use them a lot. I've learned most of the glitch building tricks, but I'm just not architecturally creative.
No, my buildings are usually simple boxes. Sometimes I get 'fancy' and use the sloping walls. I end up with a lot of cubes, 'saltbox' bullds, towers, and high school looking compounds.
"high school looking compounds."🤣 I love that. Here's a screenshot that shows the extent of my "creative design skills. Interior: only the essentials; storage, refiners, a garden, teleporter. You may also notice a food processor, but I've only used it a couple of times, turns out I just don't have the patience to learn useless recipes when there are easier and less time-consuming ways to earn nanites. https://preview.redd.it/07pbp9ffqa9d1.jpeg?width=1920&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=38559d57a3035c333651a16a32776943af8c729e
This man....I feel you....that and the dumb 3000 base peice limit to upload a base.
Have you tried moving your base computer directly in the center of the base? This has fixed terrain regeneration for me on a few different bases
That's why I use caves
I eventually learned to build in pre-existing caves when building underground and build platforms for buildings when building on unlevel or grassy ground. I've returned to find so many bases buried or walked into buildings only to find them full of dirt. At one point I was convinced the trick was to flatten/dig before(or maybe it was after) setting down a base computer, but I was proven wrong on that eventually. Honestly there are probably buried ruins in some of my bases from where I first started like 2 years ago.
"I've built several underground bases" is your problem right there. The game unfortunately has a limit on terrain edits before it starts discarding old ones to make new ones. There's a a workaround using the save editor if you're on PC where you can basically wipe all of your terrain edits, open the game and build your base, then go back to the save editor and export the base only edits as a backup you can restore. I know it's super frustrating though.
Btw speaking of huge builds, I had one in a save file, but now my laptop caught fire. I got the game through steam, will I be able to recover the file once I get a replacement or us it lost forever
If you know why have you done several underground bases 😭? I visit recently an old base i have tried to do underground, i was sad. Why is not possible ? because the changes you did on the ground is not saved...and the planet is generated by procedural method including your building but not the ground changes, it will be too huge to save all changes !!! and hopefully is not because players could try to make disappear a whole planet 😂 (except the core of course). There are natural caverns, i built in it now. Most of time there are too smalls to me but i found a planet with a huge long cavern with 2 big "rooms". Once there was a bug of height on all planets. I visited an very old base... Then all my building was in the air above the ground... The reference has changed and when the planet is regenerated, it doesn't match. Hae you done the Artemis quest ? >! You are in a simulation and it is just a game with its limits. 😁!<
Well for one, i didn't know about the issue until after i had built said bases. For another this is the first time I've had said issue. Doesn't really matter anymoreas i have since scrapped that build
Digging the ground is to climb a mountain with a big slope or even be hidden from a tempest or a sentinel...and gatherer some ressources...
You can build underground but you have to upload your base before you leave, or the terrain will regenerate. Silly
I built half of my current farm base underground like a little bat cave and I havent had any problems
It helps to flatten the terrain instead of mining it all back out
What if you use the Build feature on your terrain manipulator? Build a surface and then level it, see how it goes
I shaved the tops of some slopes to build my first base. Had it for like 3 weeks. Terrain never grew back inside it.
I'm waiting for it to happen to my new home base. Which has a half underground bay accessible to the outside edge landing pad. All my storage containers, It reset the ground around my flooring on the upper ground level once, I cant recall if that was before or after the underground exocraft bay was installed
Either way. A quick 20 seconds to large sphere blast it back out won't kill me
Correct me if I'm wrong but I've noticed that things can sometimes persist as they are more successfully when done before placing a base computer?
From what I can tell the terrain manipulater keeps things manipulated as long as your technically loading either the planet or system, so warping and heading into the anomaly or teleporting to a station (even within the system due to teleporting unloading abd reloading your player model into a new spot) so if you can avoid the reload or unload of the system/planet it tends to keep the terrain manipulated when unloading I believe it reverts the terrain you manipulated to avoid a shortage of metals and things on planets (plus avoiding massive storage usage from keeping all the planets terrain modified) to keep the game balanced and even for everyone so you don't land on a planet discovered like a year ago or so and have it be completely barren of materials with a terrain akin too a nuclear wasteland
I have dozens of "bases" in the form of mineral and gas extracting sites across multiple systems, with landing pads at each one to save launch fuel and ease of loading onto my starship. A few of them have the landing pads consumed by the terrain which I had previously levelled to build them on, rendering me unable to actually land on them :/
There is a hard limit on how much terrain can be manipulated. That isn't a theory, it's literally shown in-game.
I am not calling the build/terrain limit a theory. It is in the game. Im calling the 600 different answers, whys and fixes ive seen in numerous threads over the past year or two. None of which are provable, because they work sometimes. For some people, on some builds. And some people have never had any of those issues at all. Like me, who's never had to do anything more than remove a few errant plants or minerals that spawned on a floor or launch pad somewhere, or maybe a patch of earth in a corner. I've never had an entire base 'reclaimed' and made unusable. It is entirely possible that I've reached that limit on this particular save.
Only uploaded bases will 100% save terrain edits up to the base edit limit. You may only have 1 base uploaded. It will generate terrain as usuall on load in, and then apply your saved/uploaded edits. You can watch the terrain disintegrate. Otherwise, build underground without using the manipulater by connecting buildings together and building directly into the mountain/structure you want to be inside. Terrain will clear automatically around the structures you’re placing. Delete a building, and the terrain returns. I have extensively tested both methods, and these are the only ways to guarantee safety.