I have been collecting shelving units to build some stairs - so I can create a second floor. I tried to make some steps with them and didn't have much luck! I would love to see how you guys have done this. What is the best way to "stack" the shelves (or whatever you used) to create stairways? How did you "set" the flooring when you did get the stairs done (stack bookcases then set a rug on top??). The new Gorowyn and Neriak homes both have high ceilings and would be perfect for an upper level! Thanks for any and all tips or ideas!
Maple bookcase is your buddy, get a few for this. You can use others, but maples are tall (easier for higher steps) & usually quite cheap. The best way (depending on where you are attempting to place the steps) is to start with the lowest step. Place the bookcase so you can hang the shelf on it, remove bookcase, reposition and repeat for each additional step. This method can allow you to walk up the steps while building them, which is useful for testing the functionality of the steps, as well as making it easier for you to place the upper steps. (Please note, even if you can walk up the steps with a Gnome, you might have problems with a Troll, so concider the primary race when making stairs. Petrified bones are useful if you are making stairs for another race.) Depending on the angle of the bookcase (in relation to the last step), you can create either a straight run of steps, or a curved staircase (useful in tight areas). It gets a bit harder trying to build from top down, but you might be able to place the bookcase even with the steps already in the way. For the upper floor, search the forum for rugs...there a a bunch of threads on which rugs can be stood on (but are invisable from below) & which can not support objects (but aren't see through). Once you have picked your flooring surface (you can also use short tables for floors), it is time to start placing. Again you might want to have more then one bookcase (of whatever support you are standing on) so you can move around to get the better angle for placement of rug. I've noticed that when placing large rugs, I need to use a 'placement' rug. My rug will go red if I leave less then 12/ of the rug overlapping the last one. So to match up the corners correctly, I put down the placement rug (as far from the last permanent rug I placed), then place the next permanent rug further out from the placement rug. This is usually enough that I can get the corners to match up on the two permanent rugs. Then I just remove the placement rug for the next step.
I used 3 Swiftcloth Carpets, 5 pristine Indium Cage Bars, and 17 Pristine Vale Briarwood Benches for the Stairs. The carpets can be raised on their own using the mouse wheel option and they rest on the ledges in the main room (5 room in Neriak). These carpets can allow objects to be placed on them. I am not sure how I like it yet.
Floors: Only certain rugs can be used for this, as some are 'invisible' from underneath (so you would see your upper floor items from underneath) while some are not solid (so you would fall straight through them). I forget which one's are both solid and visible, but try a search for "solid rug". EDIT: See Swiftcloth as above poster ^^ Position the rug on the floor as normal, but before 'placing' hold down CTRL and use the wheel mouse to lift the rug upwards until it is at a height you are happy with. (you can also use CTRL+ALT for smaller jumps) Stairs: Generally I use small/low benches for this process. Start from the top and place your bench at the right level for the floor above (using the same CTRL method above). Then place each successive bench lower, with the benches you can usually line them up so that the 'sitting area' is flush (touching but not overlapping) with the bottom of the legs. Repeat until you hit the bottom floor. Spiral Stairs: Use longer benches, and start the same as a normal staircase. This time move your second bench to the exact same position as the first bench. Then without moving your mouse hold down CTRL+ALT and use the mouse wheel to bring bench2 down twice, release CTRL+ALT and use the mouse wheel to rotate bench2 around 3-4 times (depending on how tight you want the spiral). Repeat for all other benches (e.g. bench3, move to same location as bench2, CTRL+ALT down 2, then rotate 3-4 again. Good Luck!
Thanks SOO much! I think that the Antonica Rug also works - will have to do that search. Can't wait to try it!
Ah, this has been bugging me for days now! I started making a loft in my Neriak 5BR house and got completely flustered when I fell through all the carpets I had made, not knowing at the time only certain ones did that. I even went to the trouble of making floating benches as a makeshift floor for my little loft that I have, but it takes up object space and looks incredibly tacky. I'm so glad that not all carpets are like the cheap-o ones. This helps a ton and I can only imagine how much time I'm going to spend perfecting several lofts for each room.
The first thing I built in my Gorowyn 1-room was a loft because it seemed to be the perfect place for one. When I upgraded to the 5-room house I kept that idea alive. The method I have been using is very simple and effective. My favorite loft building component is the Sandalwood Platform. The benefits of using those is that they're huge so for the cost of 1 item count you can cover a large area. They also give the look of depth to the floor. That was always my problem with just using rugs. I couldn't stand how the floor was so thin if you didn't use something else under the rugs. I tried tables and other solid objects but the legs hanging down drove me nuts and could be a nightmare to disguise. The platform solves those problems. The only downside of the platform is that you can see through them if you're underneath them. To combat that, I carpeted my loft with Coalition Ornate Rugs. They give a nice look and can be seen from the under side of the loft to help hide what's up top. The stairs are made from Medium Maple Shelves flipped upside down. As suggested already in this topic, I used Maple Bookcases to position them. The only difference is that with this loft, I built the steps from the top down. It was much easier to place the platform first, then build the stairs down from it. It's easy to do it that way if you're using a platform because you can attach the top step right to the platform since it has that nice flat side on it. From that point it was easy enough to just use the ctrl + scroll wheel to position the bookcase where I needed the next step to be, attach the step, rinse & repeat. It's still a work in progress but here are some screenshots to show you the general idea. Overview: View from the base of the stairs: View from on top of the loft area: Underneath view: The basic design materials used: 17 medium maple shelves 1 sandalwood platform 6 coalition ornate rugs Not the fanciest assortment of materials but I'm only working with T4 on my carpenter and still on a budget so I worked with what I had. Certain components will likely be upgraded to better looking things as skill and finances allow. It's quite functional for now though and I'm very happy with it. You could easily make it deeper by using more than one platform. There's a bit more disguising you have to do with that though because the stair sections of the platform will show a slight outline from underneath. In my Gorowyn 1-room I had several platforms in place and made an upstairs bedroom. Sadly I didn't take screenshots of it before I moved.
