Stairwell Hell (Tactics)

[Stevie D]

I'm building several multi-storey buildings, and it makes sense to have all the staircases in each stacked in a stairwell.

So I'm stacking, say, the stairs from the first floor to the second floor directly above the stairs from the ground floor to the second floor, if you catch my drift, and so on.

The way I see it, there should be the same amount of World Units between the characters' feet and the characters' heads as they walk up the stairs at any one point, since the height of the stairs above their heads rises at the same rate as the ones they're standing on. But the thing is, they won't go near the staircase until you set them to 'crouch', which just ain't acceptable.

What's the best way to 'do' stairs in a multi-storey building, or, even better, how do I fix what I've mentioned above?

Please help!

 

[requiem_for_a_starfury]

Are you cutting a space in the floor above, for each staircase, 3 tiles long (by however wide the staircase is)? It is possible to have the stairs on top of each other, but the hole in the floor above must be 3 tiles long to give the characters room to move up the stairs (if that makes any sense) without needing to duck/crouch.

Then the staircase above should just fit over the gap, and as you say allow the same amount of head room as the character moves up the stairs.

 

[Stevie D]

Are you cutting a space in the floor above, for each staircase, 3 tiles long (by however wide the staircase is)? It is possible to have the stairs on top of each other, but the hole in the floor above must be 3 tiles long to give the characters room to move up the stairs (if that makes any sense) without needing to duck/crouch.

Then the staircase above should just fit over the gap, and as you say allow the same amount of head room as the character moves up the stairs.

Ah, that may be it, Req. I believe I made the floor-gap only two tiles long... right, I'll go and carve another row out and see what happens. Thanks!

 

[Stevie D]

Bollocks. I knew there'd be a problem.

Thing is, the staircases themselves are only two tiles long (or thereabouts - it may be two tiles and one WU) so if I make the gaps three tiles long, there's either a gap of one tile at the foot of the stairs, or at the top.

I've uploaded a clip (of the sort that needs loading into the editor's clipboard and then pasting into an empty level) of the largest staircase to my interweb here: http://uk.geocities.com/josefrpg/StairwellClip.zip

EDIT: (right click and 'save as' seems to work)

Could you take a look at 'im and advise, please?

 

[JJ86]

The stairways you have are not going to work for reasons you have already figured out so you are going to have to modify them or create a new design for the stairs. To modify them, consider adding a landing midway between floors. This will spread the distance out and help your problem. The landing could be just a single floor tile.

Otherwise consider some other stair designs.

http://luna.noesis-inc.com/images/stairwell.jpg

http://www.silvercreekvalleyhomes.com/images/5248_StAnnes/stairwell.jpg

http://www.nougat.org/~cchen/pictures/2001/03-01-Formerly-Go2Net/stairwell.jpg

 

[TW]

I had similar problem . Sufficient size of hole on stairs is 2.5 tile (15 world units) . Stairs would work good if you raise height of building by two world units adding for example RoofCaps . In this manner you will receive exactly this what you want only building will be higher , 3.5 metre on level (3.75 with floor) . Does not have other possibilities , strange , not ?

 

[requiem_for_a_starfury]

I can't take a look as I'm logging on from the library these days, but the length of the gap should equal the length of the base of the stairs (as if it was a triangle). Is your staircase 13 steps high? Going from level 0 to level 12? If so try lining the inner edge of the hole with cap tiles. Then insert each staircase over each other and use ctrl & home (and ctrl & page up/dwn) to move them up to the correct level, then you should be alright.

Otherwise make a landing as JJ suggested above, or can you post a link to a screenshot? It is possible to have the stairs stacked over each other, with the bottom step sitting over the cap tile.

 

[Stevie D]

Sorry gents, I've neglected this thread a bit.

Right, at your request, Req, here is the offending staircase in glorious .jpg technicolour. Naughty staircase!:

http://uk.geocities.com/josefrpg/stairwell.txt

 

[requiem_for_a_starfury]

Doesn't look too bad, though you might want to use some cap tiles at the top of each wall level, the first floor looks as if it's floating in mid air.

Can't really tell if you've left a long enough gap, but I won't ask you to post another showing the bounding boxes it does look at little short, but you might want to use a 6 wu long step, and a 4 wu long step rather than two 6x1 steps, then edge the hole with cap tiles, (also so that your floors don't look so one dimensional) then if you cut a 3x2 tile gap for each staircase in the floors, the bottom steps will rest on the cap tiles with the top steps flush against the upper floor tiles.

Check out some of the stairs in the main campaign, you'll see most of the internal ones have an inner edge of cap tiles.

Otherwise it's basically looks okay to me.

 

[Stevie D]

Doesn't look too bad, though you might want to use some cap tiles at the top of each wall level, the first floor looks as if it's floating in mid air.

Eh? Oh, that's ground level. Reason there are no caps there is because the floor sorta joins up with the pavement tiles outside. The lowest floor is a basement level.

Can't really tell if you've left a long enough gap, but I won't ask you to post another showing the bounding boxes it does look at little short, but you might want to use a 6 wu long step, and a 4 wu long step rather than two 6x1 steps, then edge the hole with cap tiles, (also so that your floors don't look so one dimensional) then if you cut a 3x2 tile gap for each staircase in the floors, the bottom steps will rest on the cap tiles with the top steps flush against the upper floor tiles.

Rrrriight... I think I know what you mean, although I can't imagine the staircases and the floors lining up using that method either, to be honest. I'll give it a go, though, and let you know how I get on.

Oh, and thanks for your help, of course!