this is sort of a steam version of the discord's tips channel
only read the controls, settings and maybe editor sections if you're new, the rest is mostly just information

1.
Save your favorite workshop creations locally.
Open in Editor > File > Save As
(You will have to leave a workshop-only server and go to singleplayer to do this.)

2.
Go to match settings below weather or round duration, and set Vehicle Filter to Disabled.
(Don't worry about increasing risk of trolls. There is already crashers and flashbangs on the workshop, and they will post things at convenience)
If you're not the host and you're experiencing this bug, ask the host to do this.

3.
Now you can spawn creations using your local saves of them.




If you don't want to save stuff and local is on, you can open the workshop item in editor and spawn it from there.

Bind means button/control
Pause Menu is ESC


- Default bind for Recover/Respawn is Backspace. Holding bind will respawn at garage.

- Spawn Vehicle and Editor default bind is O. Tapping will open spawn menu, holding will go into editor. While in a vehicle, passenger or driver, holding O will open the seated vehicle in editor.

- Switch Vehicle default is F2. Hold to go to previous.

- Switch Seat default is F1. Holding will switch to previous instead of next.

- You can Double-Click vehicles in Spawn Menu as a quicker Replace Spawn option.

- As host, there is a bind for Remove Empty Vehicles. Hold to Remove All Vehicles.

- Default bind to enable Free Cam is F. Holding bind will cycle free cam modes.

- E and Q is Up-Down while in Free cam.

- Vehicle Camera Switch default bind is C. Holding will go back into 3rd person, and holding again will switch back to last selected camera.

- Vehicle 1st-person view default bind is C.

- There is a Move Camera bind. This lets you rotate Camera and make actions with switches and other interactables.

- P is default for Projectile Camera.

- Default bind to Spawn Dummies is B.

- Default bind to Switch Dummies is F3. Hold for previous selection.

- There is a bind for Reviving and Clearing Dummies. Tap to revive and hold to clear.

- Chat default is J.

- There is a Chat Channel Switch bind. Use it to switch between Global, Team, and Admin.

- Holding Tab while in chat will let you navigate the HUD with WASD.

- Default bind for Map is M. Scroll to zoom, hold Right-click to move.

- You should look at the Vehicle category for Input Mappings, you will be using these binds a lot.

- Shift Up and Shift Down are for switching gears.

- There is a bind to Pin vehicles. Tap to pin seat, Hold to pin everything part of vehicle spawn.

- Rebind Auxillary to E and Q. Rebind Vehicle Exit to anything with an accelerator (ex. Shift+R).

- In Gameplay, turn off Automatic Transmission and Automatic Counter-steering. However, you can keep it Automatic if you want, just be aware that some creations require Manual control.

- Rebind Actions to the number row if it's on numpad. Action 1 and/or 2 should be mouse buttons.

- There is an inventory.
- You can switch Fire Actions. It's called Next Fire Action.

Turn off depth of field to see the sights of cameras.

You can prevent others from saving vehicles by disabling Allow Removing Vehicles from other Players in match settings.

Always have a brick limit and a size limit, unless you don't care about your server being crashed. I highly suggest 1000 bricks. (1900 at most)

Follow the match settings advice. You'll want Vehicle Filter to be disabled to be able to spawn vehicles from Local.

ESC>Options>Gameplay

Another guide about banning: https://steamhost.cn/steamcommunity_com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3030619820


Never put your seat on the turret itself. It can easily cause the vehicle's rotation and position to desync on other's ends.

Use remote control bricks on missiles and bombs to have their positions sync in multiplayer.

If you have mods and have the option Allow Different Mods off, Link your Mods in the Description unless it's between friends.

People must have the same mods as you to see the same stuff. It's not recommended to spawn creations with modded bricks in non-modded or mismatched servers. Host always has to have the mod for it to work.

Too many players can cause low fps and high latency. The fps may be lower for host than other players, just because of the amount of players.

The map can see vehicles and updates in real time. Looking at the map in PVP can be considered cheating in some servers.

You can check how much gun stack something has by shooting it once and looking at the ammo counter in the bottom left (and simple arithmetic.)

The Standard ammo type of guns is often referred to by people as AP (for armor-piercing.)

Pinning things reduces lag from complex creations. Useful for structures.

You can put dummies in vehicles to 'filter' them from Remove Empty Vehicles.

Very big things with heavy bricks are usually noticeably weak, because of how much collision damage increases compared to how much connection strength a bigger brick will have.

Each camera has a different max zoom. Target Marker has the highest and 1/3 Camera has the lowest.

There is a limit of 50 for the Server List. Change your filter to try and find certain servers if you can't see them.

It's cheaper to spawn in a vehicle with ammo than to buy ammo yourself.

You can use detached seats to 'hop' by entering them right after throwing.

Rangefind and Drop Compensate for Sniper and RPG
(ignore sprint walk)

At the top right in the editor, you'll see Editor Settings. Check out the different view modes while looking at a creation. They're pretty self-explanatory. Physics view shows center of mass.

In Physics view, the white arrows on fluid dynamic bricks don't mean much, but the red means the direction of lift.
Most bricks have a fluid dynamic surface option below material.
You can (technically) see the center of lift of a creation by selecting only the fluid dynamic bricks while having Physics view on.

You can right click on values and other attributes of a brick to copy and paste and such.

L is default for Select Connected.
CTRL+L is default for Select Recursivley Connected.
H is default for Hide, which hides bricks.
There is a bind to Unhide All, which is in the Modify tab.
Check out the Modify, Selection, and Tools tabs (at the very top) to see other various editor functions and their bindings. You can also click on them.

Proper mirroring requires that the vehicle is centered 0 on the y-axis.
CTRL+M is default for Mirror Selection.
CTRL+SHIFT+C is default for Duplicate Mirrored.
There are mirror modes on the bottom right. Switching between these also affects the other mirror functions.

There are stats for materials. You can see the stats by hovering over them.

G is default for Move. You can tap G again to go into Move Settings.
In Move Settings, you can turn off Snapping which is very useful. You also might want to make Grid Snapping Distance 0m.
You can also change rotation and location by typing in numbers in Move Settings.

For scaleables, you can turn on Centimeter-Scaling by clicking on the buttons next to the size sliders.

You can turn off Shadows in graphics settings to make it easier to see your creation.

While having a brick selected, bringing another brick out of palette will copy the rotation and position of the selected brick.

Go to User Interface and switch to metric. This is highly recommended because the connection grid is in metric.

How to Track


You should always bind the passenger seat to things the passenger seat will control (even if it's in Output Channel). No need to do it for logic though (unless it's a control switch), just functional bricks like actuators and guns.

Tank steering is enabled in the engine, and the option to invert it is in the wheels.
(I don't know why)

You can enable connections on the blank side of sign or display bricks.

Brick connection points connect within 0.04m of each other, and if they're facing opposite to each other. On angles however, this range can reduce to 0.03m because of the game's math.
On straight angles, it's suggested to move bricks up to 0.039m instead of 0.04m (floating point inaccuracies sometimes disconnect it at 0.04).

Brick connections also connect under 1 degree, but reduces at angles as well. Suggested to do 0.99 degrees at most on straight angles (same inaccuracy stuff).

Center of mass matters for all vehicles, including ground vehicles and boats. Having center of mass near the front of a car or tank is usually better for steering, but may be undesirable for something like a dragster. Definitely experiment with center of mass.

(com = center of mass. col = center of lift) For planes, having COL behind COM will make the plane dip depending on how far back it is. Having it far behind also generally decreases how well it can turn. Closer to COM will make it turn better, and ahead of COM will start to make it turn up.

You can clip and stack bricks inside of each other. If they are loose they may have collisions.

0.039m and lower thickness of bricks will connect to stacks of themselves.

Things detached by detonator inside of other bricks will not have collision with those other bricks. (unless it passes out and then tries to go back inside)

Couplings can be made static in coupling mode (same as static actuator mode.) This means they will be like normal bricks. Useful for easily connecting angled bricks.

Each brick has a rotational and movement origin. Certain bricks like the half-cylinder can easily be utilized for seamless plates, but any brick can.

Weight and cost is calculated by material. For scaleables it's material and surface area.

Brushed aluminum can be pitch black, and so can tungsten and copper.

100kg is the limit for carrying creations, you also can't carry stuff with non-static actuators (same with couplings). You can always carry a single brick no matter the weight.

You can use winches to move stuff that is too heavy to carry normally or has moving actuators.

If you want a blank display set the number color to black.

If a light is too bright it and it's directional, it may not appear to shine on surfaces.
(depends on angle and certain values which are not currently known for this guide)

Negative size thrusters don't use any fuel, but cannot be spawned with weight limit enabled.

Because sensors, switches, and math bricks are scaleable, you could use your logic as armor. It is not cheap for conquest.(The logic might be unreadable. Probably only switch out important logic bricks, or in a way that it remains accessible.)

You can use logic bricks for cosmetic parts as well, like the fins of a missile.

You can enable connections on the blank side of more bricks. Such as remote control bricks, thrusters, switches, and sensors.

You can simulate barrel heat by using a light brick with glow material. You can change the alpha of the color to make it less dark, while keeping the color red.
Example to look at: https://steamhost.cn/steamcommunity_com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3527571973
You can place a light at editor origin to help with building. Not very necessary, but is neat.
https://steamhost.cn/steamcommunity_com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3335880128

True Wheel Weight
Wheels are heavier than displayed.
All wheels in tests are 1.1m in diameter, and 1m in width (by hexediting)
Tests are in the editor palette's order.
1s means one third (10cm), x means stud (30cm)
Only tank wheels and wheel hubs are affected by material. Tire thickness or pressure doesn't affect weight.
Gold is probably a little heavier than tungsten, just too small of a difference for tests to pick up.

Wheel hubs are also heavier than displayed.
Tungsten tank wheels are the densest bricks. 4x train wheels of any material are the next heaviest.
creation used for calculation

https://steamhost.cn/steamcommunity_com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3473444419

Fluid dynamics are affected by fps. Planes generally do not have fun at very low fps.

Fluid dynamics are stronger under water.

At low fps aerodynamic things can start to shake violently. This may happen because of center of mass being far behind center of lift, high speed, and light weight.

Aircraft can accelerate for a very long time if there's basically no drag. Fake drag can be done by having some angles of attack in both directions. If the prop is fluid dynamic bricks, you can stack the bricks for higher force, and make the engine have lower gear for higher top speed.

Stock props work in space, and work more like thrusters that simply require rotation.

Center of lift doesn't change with speed, however you generally turn faster at higher speeds because there is more stress.

In Physics view, the white arrows on fluid dynamic bricks don't mean much, but the red means the direction of lift.
Most bricks have a fluid dynamic surface option below material.
You can (technically) see the center of lift of a creation by selecting only the fluid dynamic bricks while having Physics view on.

There is wind in the game, though it's not noticeable unless it's stormy.


Weight doesn't affect heli engines at all. It may not be able to lift a separate creation, but you can increase force by having more turbine stack (or probably being bigger).

Heli engines always go up at the same speed.

Start time of heli engine is always the same, unless external force is applied.

Stacking heli engines will increase roll and pitch acceleration and acceleration of rotor spin.

Stacking heli engines gives more power when spinning slower compared to 1 heli engine.

Losing a heli blade will result in the rotor spinning lower. Depends on percentage remaining.

Stacking heli blades does not do anything.

Heli engine turn rate accelerates faster at low fps.


Thrusters are weaker per frame at higher fps, and stronger per frame at lower fps. However, below 10 fps the power of a thruster per frame remains the same.

Thruster 1s x 1s x 1s (100%): 3kN
Thruster 1x1x1 (100%): 5kN
Thruster 1x1x3 (100%): 5kN
Thruster 2x2x4 (100%): 20kN

Thruster 1s x 1s x 1s (100%): $0.23/N [BEST VALUE]
Thruster 1x1x1 (100%): $0.40/N
Thruster 1x1x3 (100%): $0.72/N [WORST VALUE]
Thruster 2x2x4 (100%): $0.39/N
from Naautilus

ROTATION ACTUATOR SPEEDS
key:
yaw actuators have brick connections and axis of rotation parallel
pitch actuators have brick connections and axis of rotation perpendicular
s is third
x is x

1s1s1s yaw 90 : 1
1x1x1s yaw 120 : 1
2x2x1s yaw 75 : 1
4x4x1s yaw 50 : 1
8x8x1x yaw 40 : 1
2x1x1s yaw 60 : 1

1s1s1s pitch 90 : 1
1x1x1x pitch 90 : 1
2x2x2x pitch 40 : 1
2x1x1s pitch 60 : 1
2x1x1s pitch 60 : 1
2x2x1s pitch 40 : 1
6x2x1s pitch 30 : 1

PISTON ACTUATOR SPEEDS
key:
s is third
x is x
1s1s2s piston 0.5m/s : 1
1x1x3x piston 0.5m/s : 1
1x1x6x piston 1m/s : 1
2x2x15x piston 2m/s : 1

1x1s1s slider 0.5m/s : 1
2x1s1s slider 0.5m/s : 1
4x1x1s slider 0.5m/s : 1
20x2x1s slider 0.6m/s : 1

Actuator Speeds Images by Litchytsu



https://steamhost.cn/steamcommunity_com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2144878965
Law of Adjacent Actuators
Actuators will collide with other actuators, and objects they're not attached to. Actuators will not collide with what they're attached to.
(ex. yaw part of turret will phase through hull, but pitch will not phase through hull, and the whole turret will not phase through another turret)

Actuator Adjacency/Phasing is as said by Kira:
"0 actuators between two bricks: no problem
1 actuator between two bricks: no problem
2 or more actuators between two bricks: if they clip you will be in a world of pain"

Making one part of an actuator lighter than the other will make it stiffer. Making it heavier will make the lighter part stiffer as well. This doesn't mean just making a gold actuator, this means if the object the actuator is attached to it heavy, then the actuator will be stiff.

Actuators and pistons are affected by fps. They are usually more loose. There is also a 1 frame delay.

Actuators and pistons do not have true force, only things like engines spinning stuff, thrusters, heli engines, and force generators produce force. They can 'contain' true force though, like a physics driven piston or spring moved by thruster.

Piston max and min limits are a bit strange but necessary for certain things. Instead of how it is for rotational actuators, the values you set will subtract from the highest limit. The signs are also flipped because of this. (If you're hex-editing a piston don't worry about this.)
(ex. -0.05 extension limit will make max limit 0.15m)

Piston and sliding piston tops can connect at any point on the piston bottoms.


Axles can be used for two axis adjacent rotation. Basically, you can make a sponson without it needing space, or a swash plate of a heli rotor.

Axles can move in three different ways. Suspension, driving, and steering.

Axle steering isn't loose at all.

Usually good suspension tune is having damping be 2 times stiffness, and stiffness is practically up to preference.

Suspension is weaker at low fps. Suspension strength is also affected by wheel weight.

Pistons can interact with wheels on axles for custom suspension.

Sensors read in meters, deg/s, and seconds.

Add math bricks or switches can be used for driving while in Operation mode and outside of it.

You can use switches to control engine rpm. Like making a quieter electric engine.

Math bricks have frame delay that adds up. It's also dependent on update orders, so it's not straightforward.

Brick Rigs uses Unreal engine 4, which uses Physx physics engine.

FPS is TPS. Graphics and physics frames are basically the same.
Things move per frame, and when there is less frames they will move more per frame (instead of the game time slowing down like Stormworks or Minecraft).

Vehicles lag when going high speeds.
For example, a 140 brick truck can lag a server to 40 or 50 fps when going 300 billion kph. This effect is much greater on higher brick creations.

You can Right-click the FPS setting to copy it. You can also paste in a setting and literally go lower than 30 FPS.

Having V-Sync on causing FPS to jump around a little, which has a minor effect on physics. It also causes autocannons to not be perfectly timed. It doesn't matter much in servers since there will be some lag eventually.

High brick flying things are usually laggy (especially a lot of fluid dynamic bricks), at least on other's ends.

Wheels have a kind of elliptical sphere hitbox. It's size depends on tire pressure.

Actuators sync. (usually)

Collision is calculated by weight and a rapid change in velocity.

If you want to make a very very large spaceship for example that doesn't collapse to it's own bricks, you should make it as light as possible. Connection strength cannot scale up enough to match collision damage scaling with size.

A lot of bricks falling apart at the same time is laggy because of collisions, especially when they're inside each other.

Bigger bricks cause more lag when colliding with things in most cases.

Having a lot of connections increases spawn lag.

Pinning huge things and/or having no connections will significantly reduce lag, but it can still be laggy for graphics.

Too many lights can lag the game.

There is brick and face culling.

The math of positional sync is dependent on weight. The part attached to the seat should be at least 50% of the entire weight of the creation to be stable. Basically, do not put seats on turrets.

Detonators are server-side. Sensors, switches, and math bricks are not synced, but the outputs of a seat can be seen by others, which is how logic is sort of synced. Difference in FPS can affect things like memcells. Pressing a switch with the input type None is iffy sometimes.

Trains basically don't work in multiplayer unless you go really slow or there's no lag. Trains and snake creations can be pretty laggy in multiplayer because they can easily spaz out on other's ends (and their computers process all of the collision chaos happening on their end).

Really heavy ground vehicles cause lag on other's ends. A single small brick can be 2 million kg and make your computer go 1 fps. (Something to do with the game's math idk)

I will consider crediting anyone I know who asks (possibly learned from).
Credited people can request for anyone specific to be credited.
You can ask for credit to be placed next to tips.
You can use information from this guide for your own guides.

Please suggest or correct information for this guide in the comments, and you can also be credited if you want.

Also please ask questions, and suggest stuff that may help with curse of knowledge bias stuff.

Litchytsu
Ookron
Varisha
ChockkyDragoness
Naautilus
Jackfastcool
KoT
Conspicuous
Inscrutable
Randomly Gamer
grapyl
STRemontator
dvornik_miheich
Kira