Originally posted by ttv/SwinzieTV:

Alright, since no one seems to have mentioned it clearly:
The Hoe can:
-Raise the ground
-Average/flatten out the land around the circled area based on certain criteria
-Create Paths

Hoe Flatten Mechanics:
Mechanic 1: Left clicking anywhere on the ground will raise/lower and flatten the area to THE SAME HEIGHT OF WHERE YOU ARE STANDING if the terrain permits it. Useful for levelling out terrain for buildings.
Mechanic 2: Holding Shift and Left clicking anywhere will AVERAGE OUT THE TERRAIN AROUND WHERE YOU HAVE CLICKED. Useful for creating smooth ramps.

Tips:
-When using Mechanic 1: Work from under your feet outwards to achieve flat ground using the raise mechanic to fix low spots and the pickaxe to chip out high spots, after you have raised or chipped proceed to use the flatten mechanic again on the spot you just modified.
-When using mechanic 2: Work from the area that you first clicked and going 1/4 of the circle distance at a time to achieve smooth ramps/ground

I hope this helps to clear out the confusion of the mechanics of the Hoe tool.

oh man thanks for the tip with the shift+ click . i am going to try it right away.

Originally posted by GunsForBucks:

The topography of a location is often what draws me to build there. I never really flatten the ground except for making lanes in the swamp or farming.

That said though the tool could be better. It isn't terrible but there are spots it just does not handle well. I believe this is due to how the terrain is set in patches. When you hit a seam between two it really does not do well. Possibly due to the unlevel terrain and bedrock?

Personally I find it better to have a lighter touch when trying to make things level. Too much and it seems to drop and leave little divots.

Yeah, this has been my experience. The concept and execution are fairly simple but CAN get a little weird sometimes.

Basically I just do the "stand in one spot and go in a circle" technique, then repeat as needed and do the best I can to square it off after. I'm only going for "close enough" here, flat enough to build a floor. There may be some dips and bumps, sometimes the floor clips through the dirt, I just go over afterward and clean up with pick as needed or fill in the holes.

There are a bunch of techniques for pushing standard wooden walls down into uneven ground too, mostly using alternating single and double height pieces to snap things downwards. Horizontal core wood logs are also useful because walls can snap to the top or bottom for half unit adjustments. (2x2 doors do the same job horizontally.)

Actually I'll generally start stone builds with buried wooden walls as a snap guide for the stone.

This is something they very much need to work on, and I hope we get either a better tool at higher tech levels or they just generally improve it as it's 1 of the things stopping me playing as much recently. Don't get me wrong I love the game still, but it's so annoying when you want to build a base and you first need to go around with a hoe flattening as much as you can, then you need to go around and use your pick to dig out some bits, then reflatten it, and just keep doing that other and over.

Seriously it takes so long, the only real sort of solution I've found so far is when building with wood to use the half wall piece for the bottom layer and put all of your floor on that level, with little posts under it to support it. It's a bit annoying as you lose a bit of height, but it saves you need to spend untold hours flattening it perfectly and allows you to just kind of level it out.

Luckily building with stone is a bit better as it's thicker so you don't need to worry as much about making it perfectly flat, it is still more annoying than it should be though, even the plain isn't that flat so involves a lot of mining the land flat, and the limited amount the hoe flatten lands and how much stamina it uses makes it take forever.

Alright, since no one seems to have mentioned it clearly:
The Hoe can:
-Raise the ground
-Average/flatten out the land around the circled area based on certain criteria
-Create Paths

Hoe Flatten Mechanics:
Mechanic 1: Left clicking anywhere on the ground will raise/lower and flatten the area to THE SAME HEIGHT OF WHERE YOU ARE STANDING if the terrain permits it. Useful for levelling out terrain for buildings.
Mechanic 2: Holding Shift and Left clicking anywhere will AVERAGE OUT THE TERRAIN AROUND WHERE YOU HAVE CLICKED. Useful for creating smooth ramps.

Tips:
-When using Mechanic 1: Work from under your feet outwards to achieve flat ground using the raise mechanic to fix low spots and the pickaxe to chip out high spots, after you have raised or chipped proceed to use the flatten mechanic again on the spot you just modified.
-When using mechanic 2: Work from the area that you first clicked and going 1/4 of the circle distance at a time to achieve smooth ramps/ground

I hope this helps to clear out the confusion of the mechanics of the Hoe tool.

Originally posted by ttv/SwinzieTV:

Alright, since no one seems to have mentioned it clearly:
The Hoe can:
-Raise the ground
-Average/flatten out the land around the circled area based on certain criteria
-Create Paths

Hoe Flatten Mechanics:
Mechanic 1: Left clicking anywhere on the ground will raise/lower and flatten the area to THE SAME HEIGHT OF WHERE YOU ARE STANDING if the terrain permits it. Useful for levelling out terrain for buildings.
Mechanic 2: Holding Shift and Left clicking anywhere will AVERAGE OUT THE TERRAIN AROUND WHERE YOU HAVE CLICKED. Useful for creating smooth ramps.

Tips:
-When using Mechanic 1: Work from under your feet outwards to achieve flat ground using the raise mechanic to fix low spots and the pickaxe to chip out high spots, after you have raised or chipped proceed to use the flatten mechanic again on the spot you just modified.
-When using mechanic 2: Work from the area that you first clicked and going 1/4 of the circle distance at a time to achieve smooth ramps/ground

I hope this helps to clear out the confusion of the mechanics of the Hoe tool.

Apparently, you can't read or didn't read the part where I explained it clearly enough to answer the question, where the discussion was about FLATTENING the land to prepare it for building, but good for you for adding instructions about making slopes or whatever.

flattening is easy. but i really struggle with making even slopes. would be nice to have a 24° and 23° sloping option.

Originally posted by Gladi8er65:

Since the hoe raises or lowers the ground, (at the cursor), to match the ground the player is standing on, It's best to stand in a single spot (and don't move).

click all around, overlapping about 1/2 the circle diameter each click, as you move the cursor away from the (stationary) player.

If there are high spots or low spots, you may have to address those spots with the pick, but for the most part the hoe works just fine as long as the player isn't running around all crazy (missing spots) and ending up standing on different elevations during the flattening process.

If you have to flatten ground farther than your initial reach, then move to another spot that you are sure is at the same elevation and continue that way until it's a big enough area for the project.

The hoe will only (i believe) raise or lower the ground a max of 1/2 meter, in relation to the spot the player is standing on, and any deeper or higher than that, the pick must be used (+stone) to raise or lower the ground (roughly), before using the hoe again for flattening to the desired level.

Well described methodology for getting things really flat and level. I have seen youtubers that haven't quite realized what you have clearly stated here, making rollercoasters instead of leveling from a high point and keeping things flat.

I've always just built everything on stilts or stone foundation blocks embedded into the terrain. This may be a side effect of my first project being a bridge to piggy island.

Originally posted by Mysta67:

lets just assume that every one wants to build on a flat piece of turf.

Well this is an immediately false assumption. I'm building a village on a hillside and still rarely flatten ground.

The topography of a location is often what draws me to build there. I never really flatten the ground except for making lanes in the swamp or farming.

That said though the tool could be better. It isn't terrible but there are spots it just does not handle well. I believe this is due to how the terrain is set in patches. When you hit a seam between two it really does not do well. Possibly due to the unlevel terrain and bedrock?

Personally I find it better to have a lighter touch when trying to make things level. Too much and it seems to drop and leave little divots.

Since the hoe raises or lowers the ground, (at the cursor), to match the ground the player is standing on, It's best to stand in a single spot (and don't move).

click all around, overlapping about 1/2 the circle diameter each click, as you move the cursor away from the (stationary) player.

If there are high spots or low spots, you may have to address those spots with the pick, but for the most part the hoe works just fine as long as the player isn't running around all crazy (missing spots) and ending up standing on different elevations during the flattening process.

If you have to flatten ground farther than your initial reach, then move to another spot that you are sure is at the same elevation and continue that way until it's a big enough area for the project.

The hoe will only (i believe) raise or lower the ground a max of 1/2 meter, in relation to the spot the player is standing on, and any deeper or higher than that, the pick must be used (+stone) to raise or lower the ground (roughly), before using the hoe again for flattening to the desired level.

Well the game is in EA and they have many plans for this game. Im sure they're gonna streamline landscaping, just like they're probably gonna streamline tons of other things such as fishing or boating, both of which can be glitchy

Build a better tool to flatten the land so you can actually build on it!

its not challenging its irritating

What?

Hoe leveling brings the target area to the height of the area you're standing on by rounding the volume of the node up or down one. Level ground will not increase or decrease the height of a ground node more than 1 unit. For that you need to either pickaxe it or raise ground

It does sometimes but it doesn't do so, so gracefully.

it also does it in a "round" circle, rather than an easy square