It's the Drill, specifically the "Flatten" (mal)function: This is the final result of about an hour of "flatten", "fill", "fine drill" and "resource drill", and this couldn't be mistaken for flat by a cross-eyed cyclops. The premise behind "Flatten" is supposed to be simple: Stand on the ground at the level to which you want to flatten terrain to, aim and fire. Notice the nice little square block of gravel? It's higher than the ground on which I'm standing, but this is what "Flatten" considered flat, I guess because it's flat on top. Add to that a matter of range - the ground I want to use as the Flatten height is further than the range of tool. If I aim closer to me, it digs a chasm I then have to Fill, which creates triangular spikes of terrain sticking up in one place, and down in another, resulting in more rounds of Flatten, Fill, and Drill to get something that almost resembles a very drunken Flat area. Overall, I find these functions so bad I don't even bother building a Drill. I'll do what little drilling I need to with the Survival tool - it's less frustrating.
I would agree. I think the tool we would really like to see or function added to the drill is not 'flatten' it's smooth. I have seen a tool in world building software that will take two different heights and create a smooth gradient between them. How hills are created. This would be an amazing addition to the game as we could just smooth out terrain that we have dug up. On a related note, I do wish the fill tool wasn't just flinging blobs of concrete foam. Perhaps allowing the texture and color tool to affect terrain so that we can make grassy or rocky areas?
Ever since they changed the drills in 10.0 the flatten function has been severely broken. It used to be relatively easy to work the flatten function and always end up with a perfectly flat area. Once you had a flat spot you would stand on that flat spot and everything else would try to flatten to that height exactly. Sometimes you would have to fill some areas up a little first or they would go the next voxel down, but it was pretty straight forward to manipulate as expected. Now since the drill changes in 10.0 I have never been able to get a flat area with the flatten function. It just doesn't work at all anymore. I've tried all kinds of different approaches and nothing is like it was before. It's as if it doesn't even try to match the height of the flat voxel you are standing on anymore. It just tries to take each and every voxel up or down to it's nearest whole voxel and that's it. There is no flattening anymore.
I don't use the Drill to flatten Terrain anymore. As You said, the FLATTEN-Function leaves Terrain standing or is raising parts into spikes or such raised flat looking parts as you have. Drill is for drilling. End of Story.
I thought I was the only one to whom this happened because nobody published anything about it. Now I see no. I have also noticed the problem and it is very irritating to waste time with that. Pense que era el único al que le sucedía esto ya que nadie publicaba nada al respecto. Ahora veo que no. También he notado el problema y es muy irritante el perder tiempo con eso.
No. It got reported, requested, criticized... it only got a bit "refined" but not changed back to the old status. I remember flattening hole Mountain-Tops on early Akua to make space for my Bases. That can't be, properly, done anymore. Sadly.
