Blueprint drawing mode. (Construction Planning)

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• 14 Sep, '22
  WhiteRoo

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  I think a quick and easy to implement solution would be to add a "Planning" priority level that makes it so beavers won't even carry resources to the building site.
  
  Maybe also add the ability to set the default priority of newly placed buildings/tasks, and combined with the planning level, players could just set the priority to planning and place down buildings that won't start draining resources immediately, and without the need to pause.

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• 12 May, '21
  chess123mate

  In my opinion, a nice method for this would be to be able to toggle Planning mode, where using the current UI to place structures only places a ghost of that structure.

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• 13 May, '21
  Gin Fuyou

  Not sure if it's easy to implement considering stacking of building and dynamite terraforming, but idea is good.
  Just drawing rectangles and lines on the ground with size hints would be already a neat tool for planning.

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• 17 Sep, '21
  Garrett Merged

  Add a tool to create marks that can be seen while placing building, like the planning button that Rimworld has. This would help with plotting out where to put building and getting building ranges (IE forester and wood chopper) to match up neatly.

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• 19 Sep, '21
  Combak Merged

  Some way to preview the size and shape of unlockable buildings would be very nice. At the very least, a description of a building's dimensions would be useful, but I'd love to have something better. What if, when you selected a locked building, the normal ghost version came up; however, when the player tries to place the building, the Science requirement kicks in, bringing up the unlock or insufficient science screen.

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• 22 Sep, '21
  Leo

  I'd expand on this personally; rather than just the ability to draw shapes on the ground, the option to place buildings as blueprints so you can assemble a whole area however you like without having to worry about your beavers starting construction on an area you're still working on designing.
  
  The game can then give you a breakdown of exactly how much of whatever you're going to need to assemble what you've blueprinted out.
  
  After that, once you're happy with your design, you can click a button and it'll start the whole thing off being built, or you can pick and select just a portion of it to be built if you so choose.

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• 25 Sep, '21
  Moon_Fire

  How about a way to save blueprints, and share them like maps?
  Like you select an area up to 10x10 and get a copy of all of the buildings in that area that you can place somewhere else for your beavers to build, or you can save the blueprint as a file that the game can read and share it with other people.

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• 07 Oct, '21
  Vol4ica Merged

  yes, I lack this a lot too. There are many maps with very little of free space, so planning buildings' locations is one of key things to survive there

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• 11 Oct, '21
  Yasmin Merged

  It would be really helpful to have some kind of planning tool to mark locations on the map for future projects, such as dams, bridges, canals, buildings etc. Particularly at the beginning of a game or when planning out a new district.

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• 12 Oct, '21
  Gin Fuyou System

  "Building Planner" (suggested by Yasmin on 2021-10-11), including upvotes (1) and comments (0), was merged into this suggestion.

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• 04 Nov, '21
  Garrett Womack Merged

  For city planning it would be great to be able to preplace buildings / resources that you have not unlocked with science. The item would not be priortized or built until all of the science requirements have been achieved but would allow the builders a way to pre plan ahead with some of their placements

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• 04 Nov, '21
  Gin Fuyou System

  "Preplace Buildings Without Science Cost" (suggested by Garrett Womack on 2021-11-04), including upvotes (1) and comments (0), was merged into this suggestion.

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• 06 Nov, '21
  Gin Fuyou System

  "Planning Tool" (suggested by Garrett on 2021-09-17), including upvotes (11) and comments (0), was merged into this suggestion.

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• 20 Dec, '21
  Garrett Merged

  I'd love to have a planning toggle, which would allow me to place visual markers down without actually building them.
  
  Ideally, I could hit the toggle, and place semi-transparent buildings and paths anywhere on the map.
  
  Simplest implementation:
  - A button that allows me to draw semi-transparent squares on the map grid, in a line or as a rectangle
  
  Additional nice-to-have features:
  - A toggle that would allow me to place buildings in planning mode, even if I have not yet researched them
  - A "blueprint" feature that allows me to copy / paste plans
  - A "build the plan" button that turns a plan into actual placed structures
  
  Rimworld has a tool that does this - see attached screenshot.

  

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• 20 Dec, '21
  Gin Fuyou System

  "Planning tool" (suggested by Garrett on 2021-12-20), including upvotes (1) and comments (0), was merged into this suggestion.

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• 21 Dec, '21
  Adrien Merged

  Be able to colored areas for a specific view that allow you to tag zones for futur plan. For exemple "Tree planting", "Farming" ... tags with color that you can define in advance to decide how you will organise your base later in game.

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• 22 Dec, '21
  Gin Fuyou System

  "Creating "Colored Area" for Planning" (suggested by Adrien on 2021-12-21), including upvotes (1) and comments (0), was merged into this suggestion.

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• 02 Jan, '22
  Mel Merged

  a button that brings up a city plan overlay.
  allowing you to highlight the shape of your city so you don't forget your plans for where you want things to go.
  
  the overlay would need a 'see overlay button' for when you start building.
  to turn it off when you don't want it showing and on when you start moving your earlier buildings around
  
  (just an extra thought)
  if made to use three colours.
  you could use one to, plan landscaping, where you want rivers, flat land etc.
  one for planning out paths
  and one for important buildings
  but the colours would be for the player to decide what they are for and not fixed to those things

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• 02 Jan, '22
  Gin Fuyou System

  "City Planner" (suggested by Mel on 2022-01-02), including upvotes (1) and comments (0), was merged into this suggestion.

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• 14 Jan, '22
  Paniktoni Merged

  It would be nice to have Blueprints.

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• 14 Jan, '22
  Gin Fuyou System

  "Blueprints" (suggested by Paniktoni on 2022-01-14), including upvotes (1) and comments (0), was merged into this suggestion.

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• 05 Mar, '22
  Fluddy

  I would find it fantastic to have a planning mode that you can activate/deactive (like an overlay). Then beeing able to mark a part by dragging and selecting "Build" once I want to have it build. And when I build see ghost buildings where I have a plan when I hover with a building over that spot. Or a warning like "Planned building here". In the moment, I use paths and if I have unlocked them paused buildings but that's a little unpractical. The "save and share/rebuild blueprint"-idea sounds cool, too.

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• 12 Apr, '22
  Thomaz Merged

  I would like the ability to Move and/or Duplicate a group of structures, instead of being forced to Delete and Re-place. For instance, I was recently designing a large apartment complex (3 stories w/ spiral staircases), but miscounted the required number of ground squares needed and ran into a cliff and couldn't get everything to fit. It would have super to just highlight and drag everything over 1 square... instead I had to delete 20mins worth of build planning and start over.
  To be clear, I am talking about only being able to move the planned "shadow" structures. Once any resource has actually been placed than the position is locked.

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• 14 Apr, '22
  Gin Fuyou System

  "Move/Duplicate in Build Planning" (suggested by Thomaz on 2022-04-12), including upvotes (1) and comments (0), was merged into this suggestion.

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• 03 May, '22
  Kim

  This would be AMAZING to have in game. It would be nice to plan out my district in advanced and when I'm ready to build I just click a button to put into production. Anno 1800 has this feature it it's a great way to spend idle time too.

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• 20 Jul, '22
  Fort Merged

  Not an original idea but could be very useful. If you don't know, it gives you a way to plan buildings without actually building them.

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• 21 Jul, '22
  Gin Fuyou System

  "Blueprinting" (suggested by Fort on 2022-07-20), including upvotes (1) and comments (0), was merged into this suggestion.

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• 03 Aug, '22
  aeberharter Merged

  In Timberborn I can place the blueprint of a building irrespective whether I have enough resources stored or even in production. Regardless whether builders are available or whether it is even reachable. There are no restrictions when it comes to placing blueprints, none but a single one: research!
  
  My suggestion is the following:
  Let the player place the blueprint of a building even if it is not researched yet, the builders however will only start building it once it is researched. This way one can plan the base ahead and for new players this gives them the opportunity to have a closer look at the building and see if it does what they intend to do (eg. suspension bridges).
  
  I would propose that unresearched blueprints have a slightly different visual, maybe a pinkish grey instead of the standard grey. In the build menu there should be a button to unlock the research, similar to the robot workplace thing.

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• 04 Aug, '22
  Gin Fuyou System

  "Remove science requirement for placing blueprints" (suggested by aeberharter on 2022-08-03), including upvotes (1) and comments (0), was merged into this suggestion.

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• 04 Aug, '22
  Gin Fuyou System

  "Preview of Unlockable Structures" (suggested by Combak on 2021-09-19), including upvotes (10) and comments (1), was merged into this suggestion.

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• 12 Aug, '22
  aeberharter Merged

  In Timberborn there are no requirements for placing a building blueprint. Materials, available workers, connection to the district. All of these things don't matter, you are still able to place the building, unless you have unlocked it with science points!
  
  I propose to remove this requirement and let people place the blueprints anyway. Maybe make the locked blueprints in a pinkish grey color and have a button in the build menu to unlock it.

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• 13 Aug, '22
  Mark

  Considering the game already features a ghost view of the buildings prior to being built, they already partially have this implemented. A button or something like that to switch between planning mode on or off would be so useful.

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• 14 Aug, '22
  Gin Fuyou System

  "Place blueprint of locked buildings" (suggested by aeberharter on 2022-08-12), including upvotes (1) and comments (0), was merged into this suggestion.

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• 10 Feb, '23
  Nicholas

  I'd like blueprints in the style of stonehearth where you could design templates so you can place them down. Would be nice to have a stair system for a housing complete ready to go

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• 27 May, '23
  Jamie C

  Planning mode like in Captain of Industry would be great. By default in this mode placed buildings are initially paused and appear as ghosts which can be moved until they are built. Also, cut, copy and paste commands should work.
  
  It would also help to add the pause icon to the priority options list to make it possible to easily pause or unpause buildings.

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• 09 Jul, '23
  Jack

  I'd find 'ghost layouts' more useful than simple squares. But yes, even if you haven't unlocked the building, the ability to create an architect's layer of planned layouts would be fun and useful.

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• 27 Nov, '23
  William Kimbro Merged

  Incorporate blueprint mode for preliminary planning before actually building.

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• 29 Nov, '23
  Gin Fuyou System

  "Blueprint mode" (suggested by William Kimbro on 2023-11-27), including upvotes (1) and comments (0), was merged into this suggestion.

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• 20 Jan, '24
  Jayson

  The have a really nice Blueprint Mode in Anno 1800. Something like that would be sooo nice in this game! Especially with the stacking of buildings it would be nice to see if everything would fit into place. Instead of having to place and delete it now

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• 20 Jan, '24
  Aaron

  I just want the ability to copy and paste stuff. If I plan or build a multi-part structure of some sort, I don't want to have to manually do everything all over again for an identical structure. For example, I just built a two-block-high stairs thing out of three parts. Why can't I select, copy, and paste that?

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• 25 Feb, '24
  S. Dingenouts

  Or be able to place the building but building is on a forced pause until you unlock the science.

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• 19 Jul, '24
  Dustin Merged

  I think a cool feature that could be implemented is a Blueprint Mode - similar to Anno 1800. In this mode, you can place any unlocked building down, but instead of building it automatically, it remains a blue semi-transparent asset until you opt to finish it.
  
  I understand that you can technically pause construction / lower priority - but it would just be more efficient to be able to place a building where you want it and start construction when you have the resources / want to.
  
  I saw a similar suggestion about drawing rectangles to plan, but I believe this differs enough to have it's own thread.

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• 13 Aug, '24
  Gin Fuyou System

  "Blueprint Mode (Place but not build)" (suggested by <Hidden> on 2024-07-19), including upvotes (1) and comments (0), was merged into this suggestion.

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• 14 Apr, '25
  Tweek Del Taw Merged

  Good evening, my place!
  
  I was thinking of something: I placed an explosive (a tile) so I could place a barracks! But by the time everything was built... by the time the dynamite arrived...
  I probably forgot the reason for this dynamite (or, for that matter, the 3x3 6x4 footbridge I placed next to it...). Sometimes, you can't unlock what's supposed to be on this platform by then, for example! Or you need to think more about your project!
  
  So I was thinking of "I don't know what" x'D...
  Signs, with the image of what we want to build! Or maybe signs of 500 characters max that we could fill out to remind ourselves of our project ideas at this point on the map a few cycles ago.

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• 22 Apr, '25
  Gin Fuyou System

  ""Reminders" for our long-term constructions." (suggested by <Hidden> on 2025-04-14), including upvotes (1) and comments (0), was merged into this suggestion.

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• 17 May, '25
  BlueAngels Merged

  Hi,
  
  I really enjoy Timberborn, especially the gameplay centered around space optimization. The vertical construction system is very satisfying, and I love figuring out the best way to arrange buildings, stairs, and platforms.
  
  However, I feel there's a missing feature that slightly hinders this optimization process: there's no real "planning mode".
  
  Right now, to experiment with the best layout, I have to place buildings, paths, stairs, etc., then often cancel and start over until I find the optimal design. To prevent beavers from immediately starting construction, I have two options:
  
  Pause the game (but then nothing happens — no production, no gathering, etc.),
  
  Or manually pause each building one by one… which becomes tedious, especially when dealing with many structures.
  
  Suggestion:
  Add a "plan" or "ghost" mode, allowing players to freely place buildings without triggering any construction (no material delivery, no active w

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• 19 May, '25
  Gin Fuyou System

  "Construction Planning Mode" (suggested by <Hidden> on 2025-05-17), including upvotes (1) and comments (0), was merged into this suggestion.

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• 10 Jun, '25
  Bach Merged

  With the addition of 3D terrain, it is very difficult to remember the directions. This is especially true when returning to the game after a few days. So I think it'll be great to be able to put down landmarks that are purely UI, not a building. In fact, this system would be great to setup an estimate construction site without the required techs.
  For example, I usually paint roads on the ground to mark space I want to reserved for later. With this I can instead put down pseudo-terrain blocks that will notify me if I want to build over it, preventing me from accidentally clipping the space of reserved buildings. This will be especially helpful with digging tunnels because, again, finding directions can be quite confusing.
  Moreover, this system can even be expanded to become a scaffold: an actually building that can be walked on like a platform but you can put down buildings inside them! Buildings will only complete (and block movement) once you dismantle the scaffold. No more stranded

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• 13 Jun, '25
  Gin Fuyou System

  "Ability to put down landmark as an UI element" (suggested by <Hidden> on 2025-06-10), including upvotes (1) and comments (0), was merged into this suggestion.

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• 07 Jan
  luka Merged

  I wish there was a way to make a blueprint of multiple buildings and copy a whole complex at once with all settings and priorities, like we can do now with individual buildings

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