Upon the request of His Majesty, King Charles III (May god bless him) it has been ascertained that the implementation of a foreword which describes the proper conduct and methodology of the manipulation of props be implemented to this dissertation, and as a loyal servant of the Crown, I shall humbly obey.

It is to be assumed that the player in question has the mental capacity to get themselves to the Scene editor of their own accord, unaided by another individual, and as such we shall begin from the Prop menu.

As the prop menu stands, you have 3 destinct areas to concern yourself with, these are;


The prop list
The prop list, as its name suggests, is simply a list of props, this list is unlikely to assist you in your ventures into the world of Carpentry and Masonry, but should you produce a prop from the spawn list that is uncooperative with your methods of manipulation utilising your "Mouse" then this asset will be most useful in forcing that prop's compliance.


The Prop Manual Manipulation Inputs
Here you will find the most important tool for your time in the service of the Freemasonry, the Prop Manipulation menu, Here you can adjust matters of the props Variation ID's, an advanced tool that will be discussed at a later date, and also the prop Manipulation input fields, These fields are divided into a 3 by 3 grid to help you efficiently utilise it.


The top row is for the Geographical position of the props within the world, this is measured in Meters, with 0.0/0.0/0.0 being the lowest point in the South West corner of the map. 50/50/50 would place it 50 Meters to the North East of this default point, and 50 meters into the air.

The middle row is for the rotation of the prop on its listed axis. This tool is measured in Degrees. You may know that all men are created equal, but some are more equal than others; this applies to the prop menu too. Some props will be easily to manipulate using the Rotation tool, others not. It is a great rule of thumb to not try to manipulate a prop on more than 2 Rotational Axis at any one time, as the Scene editor is not very cooperative with this. In t he event that you may need to manipulate a prop on all 3 axis, Manipulate it manually on its X and Z axis, and then hold down the keybind of Y (By default) to manipulate the prop on its Y axis using your mouse.

the bottom row is for the manipulation of the size of the props, in relevant to the axis in question. This is the most confusing aspect of the Prop Manipulation section of this menu, as unlike the previous 2 aspects, Where the Position and Rotation were known as having constants, This one does not, Inputting a scale of 1 into a Cube prop will not make it the same size as inputting a scale of 1 into a Wall prop, therefore there are a few basic conversions you would be good to learn, these will be taught in a later aspect of this documentation.


The Spawn Menu
The spawning of Props is paramount to the production of buildings, for the duration of this tutorial. The spawner is divided between 3 important sections;

The dropdown menu Allows you to select what category of props you would like to spawn from, I must warn you that these categories must have been made in quite the rush, as many of them are extremely nonsensical, such as putting Railroad tracks in the Fences category, or having a completely empty category named "Weapons". For the later parts of this tutorial, I'd suggest opening the Walls section of this dropdown by default.

The search bar Simply does as its name suggests, if you know what you're looking for, type it in, and you should find it, If you do not, simply check other categories, as suggested previously, the spawn menu is not well organised.

The prop selection is where you will find the props you wish to spawn in; once you have selected the prop you want by clicking on it, you should follow these steps to efficiently introduce them to the editor's world;
Click the prop you want -> Press spacebar to enable/disable that prop spawning -> Left click to spawn it in place. -> if multiple of that prop is needed, hold ctrl while clicking to quickly place down multiple. -> Press spacebar again to disable prop spawning.


Random settings, Snapping, and Prop groups
Of all of these settings, Snapping is the only one you will need to utilise for construction, It's description and use will be written about in the next section of this guide. An explanation of Prop groups will be given at the end for anybody who is not sure how they work.

Furthermore, upon the request of the right honourable President of Turkey, Mr. Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, it has been requested that a table of contents explaining the keybinds that will be used in the guide be compiled here, for the ease of those privy to these writings.

T - Rotates the selected prop(s) on the centre of its axis.
Y - Adjusts the elevation of the prop(s) on its Y axis.
G - Freely moves the position of the prop(s) on its X and Z axis.
ctrl + LMB - Freely place multiple of the selected prop.
Shift + D - Duplicates the currently selected prop(s).
Spacebar - Toggle the spawning of the currently selected prop in the Prop Selection.
Del - Deletes the currently selected prop. If this is pressed when a prop that has been placed prior to the use of the save function, you will need to save again to delete it properly, you can undo these deletions by pressing Del again on the red ghost of the prop you attempted to delete.

Furthermore, the Masons and Carpenters studying this work would do well to enter into their Keybinds, track down the following settings, and bind them to their own liking.

Set mouse sensitivity to lowest - I'd suggest setting this to hold Shift
Rotate prop on its X axis - I'd suggest setting this to hold X
Rotate prop on its Z axis - I'd suggest setting this to hold Z

The subgroup of props collectively known as "Walls" are an extremely useful asset to the masons and Carpenters of the BCoF Community. They have the ability to be scaled, rotated, and positioned while still interacting with each other efficiently. We will discuss the abilities and utilisation of the wall props, and then afterwards, provide a guide to produce your first house using these props.

To begin, there are 3 main size categories for walls, These are full, Half, and Quarter, and these describe the width of the wall. Do note that most props that begin with the words Wall#_full or wall#_half are commonly destructible using Sapper works and Artillery, while Wall#_quarter is not.

It is best that you utilise the full version of the prop, as this is the default version. However you may need to utilise the Quarter variant of the prop, in the event that the gap you need to fill or the extension you need to add is small. On the subject of prop size, it is highly recommended that a full wall prop never exceed an X or Z axis size of 1.6, and never be smaller than 0.3. The Z axis is highly recommended to remain in its default state of 1.0, though if you need to make it larger or smaller, I'd highly suggest keeping it within the dimensions of 0.7 - 1.3. In the event that your wall needs to be larger than 1.6, It is highly recommended that you spawn in 2 walls of equal size, and use that instead.

Size of the wall props is important because of the destruction mechanics within BCoF, a destructible wall that is too small will appear like a useless breach and a waste of resources to the attackers, whereas a wall that is too big will appear as an unfair advantage to the attackers, as all their protection is gone with 1 explosion. Furthermore exceedingly large holes in buildings simply look strange to the observer, and will lower your reputation for quality constructions within the community.

For a practical guide of what the Wall props can do, alongside a tutorial on the utilisation of the previously mentioned Snapping Tool, please follow along with this written tutorial;
At several points in the tutorial you will be prompted to use the previously discussed step to develop your own aspect of the buildings, remember to not let the process intimidate you, and just do what seems right to you.

Step 1
Spawn in a Wall2_full - - - a wall2_door_large_full - - - and a wall2_window_regular_full

Select your wall prop, hold Ctrl and press D (Ctrl + D) To duplicate the prop, and then hold G to manipulate it into your building area using your mouse.

Repeat the above step for a Window, and place it to the right of the wall prop. Select your snapping tool, and enable snap to object while still having the window prop selected. Drag the window prop towards the connecting edge of the wall prop, and you should see that the window prop perfectly aligns with the wall prop, If it snaps to the wrong point, disable the tool, re-position, and try again. If the tool does not work, move the window and wall props further away from any other wall props in the area, as they interfere.

Repeat the above 2 steps with your Door prop, And then do it again for another Window, and then another wall.

Reduce the X axis scale of your regular wall props to 0.5, and re-attach them to the face of the building.

Step 2
Take your original 3 props, and rotate them 90 on the Y axis, using the skills you have learnt from step 1, make your own side wall for your building, I'd suggest using wall props that add upto a total width of 2 on the X axis for this section, and also building it away from the first wall, Though it is tempting to connect these 2 walls now, it will greatly help your construction process to delay this.
Remember to use your own creativity, you do not need to use all 3 of the wall types, it can be as simple as 2 regular walls, a regular window and 2 half walls, a window and a door, the possibilities are many.

Step 3
Duplicate this wall you have made, and rotate is to the 270 position on the Y axis, you can do this by selecting all props, holding Y, and moving your mouse sideways until it lands on 270.

Step 4
Use your new skills to produce a 4 width wide face for the back wall of your building, Remember that symmetry is good, however asymmetry is much more eye-catching, but requires practice to pull off right.

Step 5
Now would be a great time to position your 4 building faces into 1 unified structure, disable your snapping tool, and work clockwise to place the walls into place, do not worry about slight misalignment where 2 sides meet, as they will be covered up by Wooden beams in the next section of the tutorial later on.

The subgroup of Cubes and Triangles offer up an extemely diverse list of utilities that can be provided, from making your own stairs and Windows, Working as support beams for your buildings, or doing the heavy lifting for your detail work, They're also some of the easiest props to work with;

They are exactly 1 Meter cubed by default, Their point of Manipulation is at the direct centre of the prop, regardless of new scale, simply put, they are amazing for getting perfect alignment, and even better for getting the perfect size. They can me utilised to great effect in the following areas;

Door and Window frames can be created by using a width or height of 0.2, depending on if it goes on the vertical or horizonal face of the frame, a depth of .26, and a width or height equal to the width or height of the opening. They can then be aligned perfectly by assigning them all the same value on the axis which they are all intended to line up on.

Stairs can also be easily created by making steps of 0.1 x 0.3 x the width of the staircase. Increasing in elevation by equal amounts utilising the Y axis manipulation previously discussed in the opening paragraph, and then evenly spaced out on its X or Z axis depending on orientation, again utilising the X or Z axis manipulation mentioned earlier.

Floors can be extremely easily made by giving the X and Z axis the same dimensions as your house, and a Y axis scale of 0.1, then lowered into the floor of the building.

Support beams and house frameworks are the most important thing you can do to your build to make it look like it hasn't been ripped straight out of "Minecraft", you should start by knowing the scale of the cube you should be using;

The standard wall you have previously interacted with is .22m in depth, meaning that your cubes must be greater than this, I'd highly suggest using .22-.25 on the Z and X axis for smaller scale supports, predominantly for additional details where you wouldnt think structural support is a big concern, follow this up with .26-29 for Medium scale, where you believe supports would be needed, these should be your goto scale, as they offer up the best visuals at the best size range. Finally .30 to .33 is for the largest support beams, any larger than this and you will probably want to look into different methods of construction, this is reserved for stuff such as the main support pillars that keep the roof held up.

Now to look into the methodology of this, lets return to our tutorial build.

Spawn in a single Cube16_NonDestructable and place it nearby to your build.

Start by adding a 0.3 x 0.3 to the corner of your building, set its Y scale to be enough for it to reach the top of the house, and then place a 2nd one down on the other end of the face, check if those props need to align on the X or the Z axis, and then do so by giving them the same positional value in the prop manipulation menu previously discussed. You can check if you need to align the X or Z axis by checking with pair of coloured arrows run perpendicular to each other, as it will be that colour, X for Red, Z for Blue.

Spawn in a .25 x .25 prop, and put one between every wall prop, this should not require you to move the wall props, simply eyeball it into place, and then repeat the previous step of alignment.

Spawn in a prop that is .26 on all its X and Z axis and 0.1 on its Y axis, and place it at the top of the building, make it so that its width runs the entire length of the building, so if you're aligning on the Z axis, you'd be changing the X axis right now, or if aligning on the X, change the Z, and just like before, give it the same alignment.

Duplicate this prop, and use your Y shortcut to lower it.

Repeat the above process on every face, Remember that the connection between 2 faces will only require 1 .3x.3 cube to connect the corners.

Next we will look into frames for Doors and Windows, these are important because they help to create the 2nd layer of depth that we want to see from these Wooden support beams, and also helps you to make the build simply look more realistic, colourful, and occupied.

Start by duplicating a support beam, changing its X axis to 0.06, a Y axis of 3, and a Z axis of 0.23, This will be the Vertical panels of the frame for the door, Duplicate this prop, and change its Y axis from 3 to 0.06, and change its X axis to 1. This will be the horizontal panels for the frame.

Place the prop that is reserved for the horizontal axis at the top of the opening of the door, don't worry about it overlapping with the physical wall itself, as that will help to hide gaps between the wall and frame, just make sure the wall does not clip through the frame.

Duplicate the previously mentioned prop, and raise it to above the window part of the door frame, again do not worry about it clipping into the wall section, but you must ensure the window frame section is not greatly disturbed by this frame, else the window frame will look odd.

Now bring in your prop reserved for the Vertical section of the frame, raise it up so that the top of it aligns with the same height as the top of the upper vertical frame. Place it as close as you can, as much overlap as possible without anything peering through the corners is best.

Duplicate this prop, and place it on the other side of the frame, use the previously discussed alignment method to make them all aligned, and you should have a door frame that looks like the following;

You could stylize this yourself a bit my giving the upper most of the horizontal frame pieces a slight overhang by making it slightly wider than it already is.

Next up, using the skills you have just learnt from the time making the door frame, repeat the steps yourself on the Window frame, you will need to use your deductive abilities to figure out what the height and width of the window frame should be, as well as what heights each prop should be put at, here's an example of my window frame;

Be sure to read the section about observations and tips at the end of the tutorial where I explain how to make these Windowframes destructable alongside your window and door props.

Next we will build the wooden frame to place the Roof ontop of, For this we will use our pre-existing support beams, the process is simple;

Start by duplicating a support beam of your choice on the front or back of the house, Raise it into the sky, and rotate it to 45 degrees, Duplicate this, and assign it a rotation of 315, you will notice this forms a cross shape.

You should now ensure the topmost points of these 2 beams connect, remember to use the previously discussed method of alignment, and then begin to guess how long the 2 beams would need to be, for them to, in this orientation, become the width of the building. My personal guess for this began at 4 on the Y axis for both, but that was not wide enough, so I went to 4.2, and that was ever so slightly too wide.

Once you find the right size on the Y axis, put it into place so that it aligns with each support beam in your build, remember to eyeball it for its position over the wall, and then use your alignment methods to get them perfect with the support beams. remember to Ctrl D while having these props selected to duplicate them.

Roofs are often times the hardest things to get right, Many people will swear by the use of the "Roof" Prefab prop that is available to us all in the editor, however you will find it near impossible to line up with the building, often requiring a large amount of jury-rigging and hassle, for a sub-par visual experience. Furthermore the Freemasons of the community cannot simply provide you with a 1 fix fits all buildings answer, as roofs are often temperamental.

The addition of a roof to your building is going to be one of the most important things to get visually correct, as in many cases, the roof section will take up a considerable % of the visual aspect of your building, Experimenting with different designs, and searching online for inspiration are 2 of the most important things you can do while creating a building, but for now we will start with a simply addition to build off of later.

Step 1
Select the centre-most roof support beams of your build, And duplicate them, Utilise your Height manipulation keybind to elevate them to above the rest of the supports, and reduce their width scale (likely on the X axis) down to 0.1. Next add 0.1 ontop of their current Y axis scale, to ensure they overhang the current roof support beams.

Step 2
Re-align their peaks so that they seemlessly connect to eachother, and position them touching the support beams.

Step 3
Widen the 2 props until they have an equal overhang on every face, you can just eyeball this, as every building will be different.

As you can see, we are still using the same texture as the support beams, this will not be very visually appealing to people, and as such we should swap them out with a different texture, I'd highly suggest using cubes 5 or 6 for this, as they are meant to be roof textures, however if you'd prefer a wooden plank look, 11 and 14 both provide this. The Freemasons have petitioned the manufacturers of resources (aka the devs) to implement a cube made of hay for roofing, but as of right now that request is unfulfilled.

In order to replace the roof props with a good texture, we must first select the offending props in question, and then click "Variation IDs" on the right hand menu, just above the prop manipulation manual inputs.

Once opened, we will tick the boxes "use old props scale when replacing" and "use old prop's rotation when replacing", this will ensure only the texture will change. Afterwards check the box "Replace all selected props when you select a prop to spawn. ..." and then select Cube5 OR Cube6, consider checking them both out to see which you prefer.

We will discuss how we can get more visual interest into the roof later on in the observations and tips section, but for now, we will leave it like this.

Next we will fill in the glaring hole in the sides of the building, to do this, we will be using the newly added "Triangle" prop, these function much the same as the Cube prop, except they're a triangle instead of a cube. In the event you need help grasping this concept, please consult your government supplied carer.

Step 1
First, spawn in triangle8_NonDestructable, and rotate it on its X axis to 90 degrees, You may need to adjust it by a different amount on a different axis if you have already manipulated it in a different way before this step.
Furthermore, rotate it on its Y axis to 90 degrees by default, though you may need to rotate it by a different amount if the sides of your building are not on the 90/270 degree marks.

Step 2
Observe the length of the wooden beam you installed along the top of the walls on the side face, that is the width of the gap in meters, it will also be the height of the gap in relevance to the triangle.
You will want to halve this distance, and then assign both the X and Z axis that scale, it will now fill exactly half of the currently still present hole. Furthermore you will need to set the Y scale of this prop to be around the 0.1 mark, so please set it accordingly.

Step 3
While we are at this stage, you should duplicate this triangle, and re-familiarise yourself with the process of replacing the prop, this time we will be placing the duplicate behind the original, and then changing the duplicate over to Triangle3_nondestructable.
Once done, we will duplicate both, and rotate them both on the Z axis (by default) by 180 degrees.
Finally you will need to re-align them again using the previous method discussed too many times already. However this time you should align the stone triangles at the same time, and then the white triangles at the same time, but at a different location, as to ensure they do not all merge into 1.

Step 4
The next step is the easiest, simply put it into the gap.
You'll want to ensure a correct fit by utilising both your movement manipulation keybinds of T and G, To change its elevation and position, if done correctly, the props should fit snugly between the support beams, without any gaps.

Furthermore, you'll want to duplicate the props, use your rotation keybind of Y to turn it 180degrees to face the other way, and place it down again at the other side of the building.

This part is WIP because I really cannot be asked writing it right now, but I want to publish the main part of the guide, Here's a few bits of info you'll want to know though;

To publish your builds to the public
You must select all the props involved in the build, you can do this by raising the prop selection grab distance in the top left corner of your screen, id suggest 100meters, select all the props by clicking and dragging over the top of them, clicking Save New, and then giving it a name, your building will now appear under the dropdown of Prop Groupings. To send this to other people, Navigate to your BCoF steam files, you can typically find this by navigating to;

the Harddrive Steam is installed on, typically your C drive, Program Files(x86), Steam, Steamapps, Common, Battle cry of Freedom, BCOF_Data, PropGroups.
This will open with a list of Text files containing the data needed for another player to implement this into their own projects, simply send the text file to the person who needs it, and they can put it into their own version of this file to use it in their own builds.

On the subject of Asymmetry within builds
Within Nature there is no true symmetry, but within human nature we do not like asymmetry, the objective of Asymmetry within buildings is to make it look natural, to do this, we will take the example of the backdoor that I included in my building as part of the tutorial;

When placing a backdoor into the tutorial building you have 2 options for natural symmetry, either in the centre, where it would be extremely abnormal, or to have 2 back doors on each end of the back face. To solve this, we must look to human nature again, and remember that though humans like symmetry, they like the easiest route more, and what would the easiest route be for placing down a backdoor, other than putting it wherever it makes most sense, which is likely to be on 1 of the ends of the face of the building.

Thanks must be made to those involved in the creation of this guide, without whom this guide would be more difficult to understand than default

Stevie - For his time and effort, test running the guide
Heckfly - For his time and effort, test running the guide
Wellets - For his time and effort, test running the guide

Merhabi and Cereal - Early stage test reads
Myself - Spending too much time writing this stuff down
Raider and Bunny - For bugging me about teaching people how to use this god forsaken Editor