Advanced Build Question

[Theats]

I am trying to figure out how to use the copy and paste functions better, and have figured out that you have to have something to paste against, and that it typically wants to paste from bottom to top, or from back to front of the ship.

While trying to copy and paste, I was wondering if there is a 'clipboard' of sorts where I can save 4-5 entities or so like turrets that I can then select to spawn in while building?

Any pointers on this would be great.

 

[NightFury76]

I don't know about the 4-5 items in a clipboard(i think not) as the game is new to me too, but holding left ctrl or left shift or left alt will give you rotation around a different axis with the mouse wheel.

 

[Snowtiger256]

Yes, you can save and load templates for later use, and you can just simply paste them in place after loading the template. I myself rarely use the copypaste feature, and haven't really figured out how to use it.

 

[Theats]

Is the feature called 'templates'?

How do I use them? And how is this different than blue prints? I don't even know how to use those, really.

 

[SmilingDemon]

mark an area with xyz .. and use "copy" to get it to the clipboard
you then can use "paste" to place this selected area again (mousewheel, shift+mousewheel,CTRL +mousewheel rotates the paste object)
you also can save the selected area as a template using the "save" button
to reload it to the clipboard use the "load" button
only one template can be loaded at a time

 

[Lukwan]

MC worldedit had a great feature. You defined your bounding box using just two blocks at opposite corners. One was kind of a 'copy from' block and the other was 'paste to' block. It made it much easier to paste into a precise location. This idea is totally worth borrowing.

I would love to see a mirror-paste option too.

How do I use them? And how is this different than blue prints? I don't even know how to use those, really.

A BP is a meta-item that is the DNA code needed to clone entities. A BP must have at least one ship-core, but a template has no core. It is a sub-section of a build defined by it's volume that gets placed into a 'clipboard' (ready for pasting). The paste button will not appear until something has been copied or loaded onto the clipboard. If you save a copy of the clipboard-contents it is now available as a template, to be used in the future.

Spending time becoming familiar with templates will pay off later when you start to plan ahead. Repeating sections of a build or tapping into a library of small decorative templates will save huge amount of time and tedium on big builds.