Guide to construction

If you want to do a job, like Station Engineer, you need to know how to build and deconstruct stuff.

Basic Tools
Before you can begin any construction or deconstruction you need to gather a few useful tools.

These tools can be found in any blue Mechanical Toolbox on the station. They can also be made in an Autolathe or dispensed from a YouTool -vending machine.

Materials
To build anything, you need materials. Keep in mind that most materials can be used to make walls, doors, floor tiles, chairs, tables and statues.

Lattice
The basic base for all types of construction, this is placed directly in space.

Catwalk
Just like a lattice, except you can place wires on it.

Plating
The basic floor which you put things like wires and pipes upon. 'All' floors and walls are built on top of this.

Steel Floor
This is the basic "nice" floor, this floor should be considered used in all public areas, hence why there's none of these in maintenance tunnels.

Wood Floor
This is a fancy floor, used in the library and similar places.

Reinforced Floor
This is a reinforced floor, used in science and similar areas for better protection against fire or explosions.

Carpeted Floor
This is a carpeted floor, used to make your office look fancy.

Some other carpets available from cargo (and their constructable tables):

Light Floor
A fancy, more futuristic floor that lights up its surroundings.

Normal Wall
This is the standard type of wall found around the station, they are easy to construct and remove but are not as strong as reinforced walls. They also come in a hidden door variety. Walls can also be made out of different minerals. They're useful for:
 * Keeping people out.
 * Keeping people in.
 * Keeping people from going places.

Reinforced Wall
This is the reinforced type of wall found in secure areas of station, they are reasonably simple to construct, but are very time consuming to remove. They also can be made as a hidden door. They're useful for:
 * Keeping people in and out of high security areas.

Normal/Reinforced Hidden Door
Also known as "Fake Walls" or "Hidden Walls". With a little imagination, hidden doors can be used in many marvelous tactics, varying from ambushes to passages into your very own secret hideaway room.
 * Click to open.
 * An almost undetectable escape route.
 * Otherwise, same as a regular wall.

Normal/Reinforced Windows
Windows are aesthetically quite pleasing because they are almost invisible. You can build two types of windows:


 * Full: A see-through wall. Usually only used if you don't have enough for 2-4 one-directionals or the metal for a wall.


 * One Direction: Stops movement only from the way it faces.

APC
Info about Area Power Controllers can be found here.

If broken, you will have to deconstruct then construct the APC. An entire set of fresh parts will be needed.

Air Alarm
Info about Air Alarms can be found here.

Fire Alarm
Info about Fire Alarms can be found here.

Security Camera
Electric eyes of the AI or for camera monitors to look through.

Camera upgrades:
 * Solid Plasma for EMP-proofing.
 * Analyzer for X-ray.
 * Proximity Sensor for motion alarm.

See here how to hack a Security Camera.

Light Fixture
Provides light for the people. Bulb fixture is much dimmer than the tube-one.

Requests Console
Can be found in every room where someone is supposed to work. The Requests Consoles can be used to request low/high urgency assistance, request supplies with low/high priority, relay anonymous information or view sent and received messages. All of these produce a message to the selected Request Console and can be swiped with an ID to confirm the identity of the sender. Can be hacked to enable the 'EXTREME' priority for your requests.

The Bridge and Heads' Offices have special Requests Consoles which can send station-wide announcements if swiped with an authorized ID.

Newscaster
The newscaster is a widespread type of wall console, thanks to NanoTrasen wanting to keep you up to date with the latest news.

You can view newsfeeds other crewmembers have made, or make your own! You can even attach photos to the news!

Every Newscaster can print out 15 newspapers for people who enjoy reading stuff from the paper.

Security Newscasters can be found in Brig and can make "Wanted" Issues, censor out harmful newsfeed stories, or lock down a whole channel with a D-Notice.

Bounty Board
Used for players to request favors or items from other players for a price.

To create a bounty: Click the bounty board. Click New Bounty. Write your request in the empty field, then set a price in the next field, then click submit. Your name will show up in a list.

To complete someone elses bounty: Click the name of the requester in the bounty board. Click apply. Your name shows up as Requested Applicant. Deliver the item or complete the request of the issuer.

To pay someone for completing your bounty: Open the bounty console. Click your name. Click the little icon next to name of the person who completed your bounty (under Request Applicants). This will pay that person. You can click multiple times to pay extra. Then remove the bounty with DELETE if it is no longer wanted.

Grille
Grilles are usually used in combination with directional windows. They allow gases and energy rounds to pass through them, but stop other objects. They can also be electrified for high security areas by building them on top of a live power wire.
 * Keeping people in or out.
 * Securing an area with electrified grilles.

Barricade
The poor man's barrier, not nearly as strong or cool looking. Useful for:
 * Keeping people in or out, for a short while.

Windoor (Window-door)
Like a door, but with access controls. Windoors can't be hacked or even pried open with jaws of life. They can be pried open with a crowbar if unpowered, and emagging works.

Button
This is a button - it can remotely control an airlock. You can also put a signaler in one to have it pulse the signaler when pressed.

Firelock
This is a firelock - it locks an area when a fire alarm in the area is triggered. Don't get squished!

Reflector
This is an angular beam reflector. Any energy projectiles hitting it will be reflected at an angle depending on rotation. There are also "box" reflectors that change the direction of struck projectiles to face a single way, regardless of where they impact the reflector. The supermatter engine uses reflectors to make its emitters' beams go through a single path. Ballistic projectiles will not be reflected!
 * You can weld it to anchor it to or unanchor it from the floor, or to repair it.
 * Use a screwdriver to lock or unlock its rotation.
 * Alt-click it to rotate its angle.

Airlock
This is an airlock - it locks air. Everyone just calls them doors, although they are not actual doors. If you want to hack an airlock, see here.

Turret
To ensure no one trespasses an area. Its options are (first option is the default setting):
 * Status: On/Off - wether the turret's power is on or off.
 * Behaviour control are locked/unlocked - can be unlocked with a Security level ID.
 * Check for Weapon Authorization: No/Yes - neutralizes people who have a weapon out but are not Heads or Security staff.
 * Check Security Records: Yes/No - searches Security Records for criminals.
 * Neutralize Identified Criminals: Yes/No - neutralizes crew members set to Arrest on the Security Records.
 * Neutralize All Non-Security and Non-Command Personnel: No/Yes - self explanatory.
 * Neutralize All Unidentified Life Signs: Yes/No - neutralizes aliens.

AI Core
The AI's house.

Solar Panels and Trackers
You can generate power with these things.

Disposal Pipes and Machinery
The disposal system of the station.

Computers
Computers can have various uses.

Modular Consoles
Modular Consoles are very flexible devices.

Machine_Frame.png Machines
For detailed information about each machine: machine construction guide.

Floorbot.gif Generic_borg.png Ripley.png Robots, Cyborgs and Mechs
Their construction is described at: Robots, Cyborgs and Mechs -pages.

Mineral Door
The actual doors of the game. Nobody ever uses these poor things and they aren't even airtight. Most ore materials (and wood) can be made into a door.

Conveyor Belt
The Conveyor Belts seen in Cargo, Disposals, and other places around the station can be set up similar to a floor tile, only they require a bit more setting up to become functional. Clicking a placed conveyor belt with an item will put that item on the belt unless it's a wrench, screwdriver, crowbar or you are on.

Railings
Railings are typically used on maps with extra Z-levels to prevent people from falling down.

Sink
Allows you to wash things. Have empty hands and click on sink to wash yourself, or have a tool in hand and click on sink to wash it. If you have nothing in your active hand you will wash your face (if targeting the head, eyes or mouth) or your hands (if targeting anywhere else).

Sinks slowly generate water, up to the max capacity of 100u. Click a sink with a liquid container to fill it with water. Sinks can be connected to a plumbing system to fill them with custom reagents instead of just water.

Some sinks have a cosmetically different appearance (e.g. ) but all of them work identically.

Shower
The HS-451. Installed in the 2550s by the Nanotrasen Hygiene Division. Switch the shower on and off with an empty hand. Use a wrench to adjust the shower water temperature from normal to freezing, from freezing to boiling or from boiling to normal. Use an analyzer to identify the shower's water temperature without risking burns.

Showers slowly generate water, up to the max capacity of 200u. Showers can be connected to a plumbing system to make them spray custom reagents instead of just water. Showering will cause touch reactions.

Chairs
Chairs are for sitting down and making the place look nice. The only real use for chairs are to restrain people, building electric chairs or to buckle in when the shuttle is about to take off. Office chairs can also be used to move buckled people around.

Tables/Reinforced Table
Tables are used to hold objects on. The most common ones are metal, glass and reinforced. You can climb onto tables, though it takes a short while. Tables can also be used for ghetto surgery.

Closet
Closet are among the most common and arguably the most useful of containers on the station. Nearly anything can fit inside, barring other closet, crates, and certain especially large objects like racks and MULEbots.

Besides being welded shut, some closet can be, well, locked. Several levels of access exist, such as security-, captain-, and private-level access. These can be opened with the proper level identification card, emag item, or with enough damage. If you don't want to take out your id to open these every time, you can alt-click them to lock/unlock them.

If you yourself are inside a closet, you can see your surroundings. Normally you can move in any direction to exit the closet, but if the closet is locked or welded, you will be unable to exit and you cannot unweld or unlock your cell from inside - at that point if you try to move around you will instead throw yourself against the sides of the closet, making a BANG BANG sound that can be heard from several squares away. Using the Resist button will allow you to slowly open the locker.

Coffins count as closets.

Different types of closets:

Rack
Racks are flat and wide, incapable of being walked over, and bolted together. They can hold any number of items, but they hold them stacked on top of each other like a table. They are most common in maintenance tunnels and the EVA room.

Beds
Get your mind out of the gutter, they're for sleeping! Most station's beds come with a bedsheet, and new beds without sheets can be made with metal. The Medbay's preferred variation of a bed is the movable and collapsible Roller Bed, which is extremely useful for transporting patients.

You use a bed by going on top of it and *sleep. To buckle someone, put them on the bed and drag their sprite on it, to release click on the bed.

Bookcase
Holds any number of books inside.

Drying Rack
Dries herbs for smoking, meat into jerky and grapes into raisins.

Display Case
Show off an item within a glass case. Use an ID to open a display case.

Power Wires
Power wires (cable coils) are available from autolathes, yellow toolboxes, engineering vending machines or scattered about the station's maintenance-, construction- and storage-areas.


 * Wires can be electrified if connected to a power net (a charged SMES or APC is attached to the wire), and you will get fried if you place or cut them.
 * Insulated gloves negate any electrical shocks to the player.

How Do I Wire?
After a change in the summer 2019, wires will automatically connect to other wires on tiles in cardinal directions. To place, lift any floor tile with a crowbar to reach the plating. Then click the plating while holding cable coil in your hand to place the wire. To remove wires, use wirecutters on them. Powered wires will automatically electrify grilles and power some machines on top of them.

Wire Art
The wire art that was available before June, 2019 can still be made by using an item called "pipe cleaner". See the Guide to wire art.

Connecting Machines
Most machines are connected to powernets wirelessly by being in an arbitrary "area" containing a charged APC. Though some machines must be connected by having a powered wire under them.

With wire knobs now being just what a wire looks like after it's cut, all grilles on top of a wire that has power are shock grilles.

Please note those machines must also be anchored (generally wrenched down) to be connected.

Special cases :
 * APCs are connected to an adjacent powered wire with a special terminal, by doing the cable coil construction step.
 * An exception to the cardinal function is SMES, which has an input an output wire next to each other without being connected.

Wire Layers
Since October 2019 you can put cables on different layers. Ctrl-click the stack of cable coil to toggle layer. Layers do not connect, and can have separate powernets running along the same tile. Machines and terminals only connect to layer 2, yellow. Cable bridges can be crafted by using the cable coil inhand. Bridges link cables across layers on the same tile, or allow APC's/machines (those that aren't wireless) to connect to layers other than 2 when placed under them.

Wire-net Reset
This is Byond's attempt to "reset" the whole power net in order to deal with new/removed wires that shift the power value of a whole system. It will cause APCs to stop charging for a moment, and in huge nets it can shut down the charging of all APCs for a while.

Don't mess with wires unless you have to, it causes problems to everyone in both OOC (potential lag) and IC (power loss).

Pipes
Pipes are only constructed from Pipe Dispensers in Atmospherics. To use a Pipe Dispenser, follow these steps:
 * 1) Put Dispenser in a powered area.
 * 2) Wrench Dispenser to lock it into place.
 * 3) Click on the Pipe Dispenser with an empty hand and select the pipes you wish to use.
 * 4) You have a pipe to play with now.
 * 5) Wrench Dispenser to make it mobile once more.

disposal_pipe.png Disposal Pipes

 * 1) Rotate the pipe to the direction you wish the pipe to be in.
 * 2) Wrench the pipe to the ground.
 * 3) Use a lit welder to fuse the pipe to the ground.

Gaspipe.png Gas Pipes

 * 1) Rotate the pipe to the direction you wish (pay attention to gas pumps as they are direction dependent).
 * 2) Wrench into place.
 * 3) Turn on the pipe, if necessary.

How to Remove a Pipe

 * 1) Perform the step you used to set the pipe into place in reverse (make sure the pipe is powered off).
 * 2) Brace for any junk that might blast out of the pipe.