[79.3] Support beams are utterly useless

[Two 21]

I just tried to use some support beams to make sure my sluice cave does not break in, but I had to notice that support beams break apart as soon as even minimal weight is put on them. 1 block of dirt is usually enough to make them shatter, 2 will do it for sure.

It does not matter how the support beam is constructed, an arc will break as fast as a single block pillar.

In addition once the beams broke, there will be invisible remains of it left behind. When placing a block at such location the ghost beam will reappear and seems to be functional (as in: it breaks as soon as you put any weight on it).

[Bioxx 796]

Falling blocks break non solid blocks when they are falling. This is likely what you've seen.

[Kittychanley 1,002]

Support beams are intended to be used as a way of preventing cave ins that are caused by mining stone blocks which would then turn to cobble.

 

They were never really intended to be used for other falling blocks such as player placed blocks, or dirt.

[Bioxx 796]

There is however a transparent block bug which is fixed for the next patch.

[Two 21]

If I cannot place dirt blocks on a pillar, then how would I use them to build a cave in the earth? I cannot put them somewhere before as they won't prevent the cave-in and I cannot place them afterwards, as they will break immediately.

[EstebanLB 183]

you cant build a cave in dirt ground...

[Two 21]

Well I never used them for anything else.

I am not sure if smoothed stone still prevents cave-ins, but if it does, then the use of a support beam would be very limited.

[Kittychanley 1,002]

Well I never used them for anything else. ;)I am not sure if smoothed stone still prevents cave-ins, but if it does, then the use of a support beam would be very limited.

 

Smoothed stone won't cave in, but you can't smooth the underside of a stone block that has stone above it; so you can't smooth out your entire ceiling to prevent cave ins.

 

The digging the top block first method is no longer a 100% guarantee it won't cave in either.

[kaldskryke 27]

I can build a support beam frame and place dirt on the side of the frame and it will stay up. If you do that on both sides of the frame, you can then build on top of the frame without anything falling off and it keeps the frame intact.

[kaldskryke 27]

Falling blocks break non solid blocks when they are falling. This is likely what you've seen.

If a falling block smashes directly through a H-support block, the H-support will drop as an item, but it isn't the "generic" support item, lacks a localized name, and appears as Oak when placed.

[Two 21]

What I usually do is to dig out one block in the ceiling, smooth the 4 adjacent onces, then place a smoothed stone in the hole. This way you have a good looking ceiling and no cave-ins. Also no support beams are ever required.

[Kittychanley 1,002]

Yeaaaah, you're going to consistently start getting cave ins when you dig out that one ceiling block now.

[Two 21]

Yeaaaah, you're going to consistently start getting cave ins when you dig out that one ceiling block now.

I am looking forward to give that a try, but the sluice is still broken so no copper. ;)I've been playing with a much higher cave-in chance with the previous version already and never had any issues. But even if there are, then I still can build the ceiling while I am carving out the room, so in worst case I get a 1-block cave-in.

[kaldskryke 27]

I am looking forward to give that a try, but the sluice is still broken so no copper. ;)I've been playing with a much higher cave-in chance with the previous version already and never had any issues. But even if there are, then I still can build the ceiling while I am carving out the room, so in worst case I get a 1-block cave-in.

You can always use the goldpan to get copper.

[Two 21]

That's what I did. So far no need for support beams, even though I mined out half a vein of copper.