Advanced Building Mode

Advanced Building Mode is entered by holding the control key (default) while in Build Mode.  While in Advanced Building Mode, the cursor can be moved freely to place blocks without moving or turning the camera.

Advanced build mode can only be used on a planet if you're in a Build Block.

The three largest advantages to Advanced Building Mode are multiple block placement, block rotation, and symmetry options.

Multiple Block Placement

While in Advanced Building Mode, a variety of options appear in the top right corner of the screen.  The first option is to enable or disable remove mode, which highlights blocks that will be removed if the player right clicks, rather than highlighting where a block will appear if the player left clicks.  While in this mode, the placement box will be red instead of yellow.

The next three options control the size of the placement box.  By increasing these numbers, the player is able to place multiple blocks simultaneously.  The X, Y, and Z coordinates are in line with the orientation of the ship, with X being width, Y being height, and Z being depth.  The placement box will change in size to reflect the area that will be filled with blocks upon left clicking.

Placement box size affects both the adding and removing of blocks; deleting a block while in Adcanced Build Mode with a larger placement box will delete more blocks.  To see exactly which blocks will be removed, enable remove mode, covered above.

Alterations to the placement box will not affect block placement in standard Build Mode, however the settings do not reset upon leaving Advanced Build Mode.

To alter how many blocks can be placed at a time you must enter your StarMade directory and find the 'server.cfg'. You must open it using a suitable editing software (eg. Notepad). Once the file is open you must find (Ctrl+F) the 'PLAYER_MAX_BUILD_AREA' setting and alter the number (Default: 10) to the value you wish to be able to build with. Afterwards you may save the file and exit and restart StarMade if it was already open.

Block Rotation

Certain blocks can be rotated in Advanced Build Mode, such as wedges, docking modules, and cannons.  Blocks that are not orientation-sensative (such as hull blocks and plextanium glass) do not have a preview, and are not affected by rotation.

Rotation can be achieved in two ways.  The first way to rotate a block is to click on the arrow to either side of the block preview, which updates the preview to show how the block would look in its new orientation from the player's camera angle.  The second method is to use the scrollwheel, which does not affect zoom while in Advanced Build Mode.

Note that rotation does not affect the orientation or size of the placement box.

Symmetry Options

The final options in Advanced Build Mode allow the player to build using symmetry.  Symmetry will automatically place blocks on the other side of a plane as they are placed by the player, like a mirror.  ZY symmetry will make the left and right sides the same, XY symmetry will make the front and back the same, and XZ symmetry will make the top and bottom the same.

After selecting the desired plane of symmetry, the player must choose where the plane to reflect over will be located.  A common choice for placement is in the middle of the ship, though other locations may be chosen to offset the center of symmetry.

Symmetry is even by default, establishing the plane along the edge of the selected block.  This results in a ship that is an even number of blocks wide (if ZY symmetry), tall (if XZ symmetry), or long (if XY symmetry).  Alternatively, odd symmetry can be enabled via a checkbox, which is the last option in Advanced Build Mode.  Odd symmetry establishes the plane through the middle of the selected block, resulting in a ship that is an odd number of blocks wide, tall, or long.