Guides:Flattening

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Flattening is the digging process of making a tile's slope level.

Flattening made easy

Assumptions

1. The surrounding 8 tiles are flattenable (see below)
2. Shovel is active
3. You have a cart to put dirt into

Some tile types prevent flattening. The most common are tree, clay, and marsh.

Actions

1. Pick a single corner as you reference (you could place a small barrel or another container on it so you know the reference corner).
2. Right-click on a tile border that adjoins the reference point and see which end of the tile border needs to be dug.
   • If the reference corner is the highest, then drop the required dirt at the lowest end.
   • If the reference corner is the lowest, then dig the required amount from the highest end.
3. Repeat until area is flat.

Technical data about flattening

The times given when you start to flatten correspond to the number of dirt "difference" are:

• 0 = "The ground is flat now."
• 1..3 = 9 secs
• 4..7 = 19 secs
• 8..11 = 29 secs
• 12..15 = 39 secs
• 16..19 = 49 secs
• etc

So the time is the "number of dirt difference" / 4, rounded down, * 10 + 9. The "number of dirt difference" is the difference between the highest and lowest points. So a 9-second timer could be from tiles like this:

0---1 or 0---3 or 0---0 
|   |    |   |    |   |
1---2    3---3    0---3

If at the end of the timer the tile is in the 1-3 dirt difference range, these messages are displayed:

1: "You assemble some dirt from a corner." (and you get one dirt added to inventory).

2: Depending on how much dirt you are carrying you get:

   0: "You assemble some dirt from a corner." (twice) and you get 2 dirt added to inventory.
   1: "You use some of the dirt in one corner." 
       and "If you carried some dirt, it would be used to fill the 1 corners that need it."
       Note the tile is NOT flat.
   2: "You use some of the dirt in one corner." (twice) and the 2 dirt in inventory are used.

3: Depending if you are carrying any dirt you get:

   0: "If you carried some dirt, it would be used to fill the 1 corners that need it."
       Note the tile is NOT flat.
   1: "You use some of the dirt in one corner."

Example

Lets say you have a 4-tile area you want to be completely level. You stand in the center of that area at reference corner 'x' below, and examine the tile borders leading to corners 'a', 'b', 'c', and 'd' showing how high or low each point is compared to yourself.

 e -------- b -------- f
 |          |          |
 |         +1          |
 |          |          |
 a -- -1 -- X -- +2 -- c
 |          |          |
 |         -3          |
 |          |          |
 g -------- d -------- h

Remember that slopes are measured on tile borders, and dirt is dug or dropped at the corner you are standing nearest to. The message "Two dirts steep toward you (ie DROP)" means +2 on this diagram; "One dirt steep away from you (ie DIG)" means -1. The message has nothing to do with how you are facing, and everything to do with where you are standing in the tile.

Since corner B is one dirt higher than corner X, and corner A is one dirt lower than corner X, go dig a dirt from corner B and drop it on corner A, making both of those borders level. Dig two dirt from corner C and drop them on corner D and tile border X->C will be level as well, with corner D still needing one dirt from elsewhere (go dig outside your four tile area). You'll need to do the same thing now observing e, f, g and h relative to a, b, c and d to make the edges level (don't dig/dump from points you've already leveled).