Taking Buildings Apart

[XxZeraphinexX]

Would be nice if it would be possible if we could take builings and structers apart for matirial and space like it would be in real life, maybe depending on the tool you use you get parts, Hammer = more wood some nails, Axe only wood, crowbar more nails then wood etc

[Connall]

Doors and windows, yes. Walls etc no. I don't believe the player would have the skill (except the construction worker profession) to be able to actually take apart a building. Even then, for a construction worker without the proper tools I imagine it would be incredibly dangerous, though with my lack of experience in taking down a house, what would I know?

[Armeretta]

starting from the roof with just a hammer you could deconstruct a house. If you started from the bottom you'd run into problems though

[ApolloDiaspora]

Could work well for dismantling those small wooden cabins, sheds, or the little carport structures some houses have instead of a garage. A full size house? Not very likely.

That being said, the ability to pillage roofing tiles for your own use, or accessing the area under the roof (safehouse anyone?) could be good

[Romulas]

That is a Really big agrivation; having Construction carrier, and not able to salvage even a Nail when you find a hammer, crowbar, or sledgehammer! :{  Seriously, I've built 4 houses from ground up, and demolitioned 2.  With a crowbar, you're looking at LOTS of usable wood.  A hammer, Nails...  and my favorite; Sledgehammer }>  In the proper hands, this little beuty can get you zounds and gazooks of wood (the saw would be needed to remove broken edges), multitudes of nails, and all the brain-bashing-goodness a schezophrinic Thor could bring!  Will be the first mod I attempt.

[Armredhoof]

Another thread talked about this we got word from the higher ups that they are working on retrieving materials form deconstuction

[Fj45]

I could see this working with small scale stuff like drawers and shelves, but anything bigger, even carports and sheds as Connall suggested would be extremely dangerous to reclaim.  Your survivor is untrained, lacking proper tools and plans, even going from the roof down is dangerous as the walls could collapse in.

[Rathlord]

I've actually taken down a house before. With about half a dozen men, professional tools, and a week of labor you can take down a tiny house, but I wouldn't expect much usable.

Most nails will be bent, broken, or rusted. I'm not sure why people seem to think you're going to salvage wood that's good for anything better than scrap- the wood will be cracked, bent, split, and full of holes. Of the entire house we took down, we got some doors, door and window hardware, and less than a dozen reusable pieces of wood.

[Connall]

I've actually taken down a house before. With about half a dozen men, professional tools, and a week of labor you can take down a tiny house, but I wouldn't expect much usable.

Most nails will be bent, broken, or rusted. I'm not sure why people seem to think you're going to salvage wood that's good for anything better than scrap- the wood will be cracked, bent, split, and full of holes. Of the entire house we took down, we got some doors, door and window hardware, and less than a dozen reusable pieces of wood.

 

That is also an excellent point, that I never thought about. Got to stop seeing this as an RTS or something where getting rid of a building or something regains your supplies. 

[Fj45]

I've actually taken down a house before. With about half a dozen men, professional tools, and a week of labor you can take down a tiny house, but I wouldn't expect much usable.

Most nails will be bent, broken, or rusted. I'm not sure why people seem to think you're going to salvage wood that's good for anything better than scrap- the wood will be cracked, bent, split, and full of holes. Of the entire house we took down, we got some doors, door and window hardware, and less than a dozen reusable pieces of wood.

 

Yeah, that was another thing I was worried about, that is quite surprising how little you got out of it, I knew you probably wouldn't be able to get a whole lot but only a dozen pieces? 

[Rathlord]

I mean, being that it's the apocalypse I'm sure you could use more than that many pieces of wood, they'd just be garbage quality and pretty easy to break. Sledgehammers are pretty hard on stuff- you can get more usable pieces by sawing things apart, but that would make taking down a house take months.

[Fj45]

I mean, being that it's the apocalypse I'm sure you could use more than that many pieces of wood, they'd just be garbage quality and pretty easy to break. Sledgehammers are pretty hard on stuff- you can get more usable pieces by sawing things apart, but that would make taking down a house take months.

 

Brick houses would be even worse. Much harder to destroy, really dangerous and what materials you can salvage need alot of work to be useful.  

[Exercist]

I'd like to point out that there is no danger (to my knowledge) in deconstructing a house made by a player. Therefore, why is danger associated with taking down preexisting houses? Furthermore, what does it matter if supplies are gained in the process? My concern is more on modification rather than reclamation. Who is honestly content with the fact that expanding a house means working around the existing structure? I'd like to be able to break down an existing house wall to expand a room. Moreover, I'd like to be able to replace the roof tiles with floor tiles. Is it wrong to want creative freedom in an apocalypse?

[Fj45]

I'd like to point out that there is no danger (to my knowledge) in deconstructing a house made by a player. Therefore, why is danger associated with taking down preexisting houses? Furthermore, what does it matter if supplies are gained in the process? My concern is more on modification rather than reclamation. Who is honestly content with the fact that expanding a house means working around the existing structure? I'd like to be able to break down an existing house wall to expand a room. Moreover, I'd like to be able to replace the roof tiles with floor tiles. Is it wrong to want creative freedom in an apocalypse?

 

I can't really understand what you saying, please try to clarify it.

 

I will answer what I think I can understand:

 

The construction system will be expanded, it is currently quite basic and unrealistic.

 

The game is aiming to be realistic, your player is untrained and lacks proper tools, trying to demolish one is a great way to take several tons of roof to the head.

 

IRL what usable material you can get from demolishing a house is almost nill, it should be the same for PZ.

 

No one is saying you shouldn't be able to renovate houses, just that to demolish one it would be slow and dangerous. You can already break down walls with a sledgehammer. 

 

Once the carpentry and construction system is expanded, stuff like this will be possible. 

 

The Devs will try to give you as much freedom as possible, it is a sandbox after all but you must always factor realism into any suggestions.

 

Welcome to the forum, PM me if you need any help.

[XxZeraphinexX]

Wow, didn´t know that this would cause so many emotions

just for the topic, didn´t know they will do this anyway

and for the gameplay..

I took down house and renovated etc. sure you wont get much usable stuff, but in a world where you run short on nails i would try to get them anywhere and therefore taking house or furnitures apart and get bend nails strait would be an option.

the wood isn´t a really rare item so far as i could play and see, so more like small peice for the bonefire

other stuff like roof tiles etc would be a nice addon and maybe some smaller furniture to take and place new

mainly it was just about that this would be a nice add up

and as far the items are allrdy in the game why not also build a solid brick house if you get the building skills

even untrained people can learn laying bricks and with the books in game you could just take it as a manual to do so the nearest home depot would havefer help too but the clerks are kinda unhelpful this times

 

and as much the game develops i don´t worry about more crafting options and also more ressources to do so

[Rathlord]

Just a note, trying to drive in a nail that's been bent (or even trying to re-straighten it in the first place) is nearly impossible. You're just going to end up either shearing the nail in half or driving it in all crooked. The reality is, you'd be better off scavenging in a cupboard for nails than trying to take a cupboard apart for them.

[American Steel]

Honestly, screws are used a lot in construction.  Being able to take apart something slowly for more usable material would be the way to go.  Let me elaborate.

 

Demolition - You have a door, and you take a heavy tool to it and get some wooden planks, some hinges maybe and a door knob.

 

Reclamation - You take the door off from the inside and you have a whole door.

 

Demolition - You take a hammer to a bathroom and tear it down to the studs, toss everything as you go.

 

Reclamation - You do the same thing, but keep a lot of the old stuff to sell or reuse.

 

Reclamation takes more time than demolition, but you have a shot of keeping a lot more of the original materials.

[Rathlord]

Screws might be viable, but expect them to be incredibly hard to take out. As buildings settle many screws are going to be wedged in there pretty damn tight. Then consider all the ones whose heads you're going to muck up taking them out- and keep in mind you're going to need power tools to do this, not screwdrivers. Take apart an entire building with a screwdriver, then get back to me =P

 

Also bears mentioning that screws are used a lot in modern construction, not construction in general. Nails were vastly more prevalent in older houses, and I would assume being a fairly rural place most of Muldraugh are going to be older homes, aside from a few newer subdivisions.

[American Steel]

Screws might be viable, but expect them to be incredibly hard to take out. As buildings settle many screws are going to be wedged in there pretty damn tight. Then consider all the ones whose heads you're going to muck up taking them out- and keep in mind you're going to need power tools to do this, not screwdrivers. Take apart an entire building with a screwdriver, then get back to me =P

 

Also bears mentioning that screws are used a lot in modern construction, not construction in general. Nails were vastly more prevalent in older houses, and I would assume being a fairly rural place most of Muldraugh are going to be older homes, aside from a few newer subdivisions.

 

Nails over screws then   Nails are used a lot in the construction, but screws are used a lot inside (cabinets, doors, etc).  I don't need to take the whole house apart to know where the screws are, just point me to the kitchen, bathroom or any room with shelves.

 

Regarding nails inside a building.... we should be able to secure a nail from pictures we remove from the walls.  The areas may be rural, but something is keeping those jokers on the wall beyond duct tape!

[Rathlord]

Aye, and I certainly wouldn't argue there's not usable stuff out there. The only thing that would be harder to find is good sized stuff like 3 inch nails, or heavy 2 inch screws like are typically used in the heavier construction stuff. There's plenty of "tack" nails (used for hanging pictures, holding up cabinets, etc) and smaller screws around, but I'm not sure how much that would help with more serious construction.

 

I could see maybe a small chance to get either a nail or a screw back from destroying things, certainly. I've also long been a proponent of taking doors apart rather than destroying them- if you can get to the hinges (from inside, obviously) it's a simple matter to take a door down. That could get you easily a half dozen screws, a doornob, several hingers, and obviously a full door panel.

[ApolloDiaspora]

Being able to pilfer an entire door or window frame/glass assembly would be an excellent way to collect supplies for a safe house (Nailing a door over the stairs to stop zombies climbing up anyone? ), but moving that much weight in one go would be a bitch. Reimplementing wheelie bins could work for that, mind you.