Building

Placing buildings, access rules, auto-flatten, rotating, undo and redo, bulldozing, terrain, trees and the Landscape drawer (ponds, decor).

#The Buildings drawer

Buildings are grouped in tabs: Core, Services (restaurants, shops, parking…), Lodging, Kids, Safety, Operations, Snow, Water, Recreation and Transport. Each card shows the price and a small season tag (a hint only: you can build anything in any season): some buildings only earn their keep in winter (ski school, Après-Ski Bar, snowmaking cannons), some in summer (Adventure Park, beach, boat rental) and some all year. Hover a card for cost, upkeep, footprint and requirements.

#Placing

1. Pick a building. A ghost follows your cursor: green is fine, red is blocked, and a message tells you why.
2. Rotate with R (or Shift+R back). Press F to toggle auto-flatten.
3. Click to place. Hold Shift to place several in a row. Esc or right-click cancels.

#Auto-flatten

Most buildings need level ground. With auto-flatten on, the game plans a tidy cut-and-fill pad under the footprint (with a small retaining wall where needed) and charges you for it. The preview shows the cost; if you can't afford it the placement is refused. Trees on the footprint are cleared. Flattening never touches water, streams, other buildings or pistes.

#Access: “Not connected”

A building can always be placed, but it only works when it is reachable. Depending on the building it needs a footpath, a road, both a rail line and a path, or to sit beside a piste (a hut, for instance, wants a footpath, road or piste next to it). If it isn't, the inspector says Not connected: needs … and, for roads, points at the nearest road end. Ranger Rudi will also nag about it.

#Undo and bulldoze

• Ctrl+Z undoes and Ctrl+Shift+Z (or Ctrl+Y) redoes. Everything you build is covered: buildings, lifts, path / road / rail / piste strokes, bulldozing and even a whole terraform or tree-planting drag (one drag is one step). The last 10 actions are kept, and only on the same in-game day.
• Undo refuses, and tells you why, if guests are inside or riding, if the money isn't there or if the ground around it has changed. A new action clears the redo list.
• X or the Bulldoze button removes buildings, lifts, paths and pistes.

#Terrain and trees

Open Terrain to raise, lower, flatten or smooth the ground (keys 1–4 while the drawer is open, [ ] for brush size). Slopes can't be steeper than the maximum edge step you set. Trees are in the Landscape drawer, Nature tab: the Plant and Clear tools paint trees: saplings grow over about four months and never on pistes, paths, buildings or water. Felling forest and planting it back also feeds the sustainability bar of your rating (see Events & the region).

#Landscape: ponds, terrain, nature and decor

The Landscape drawer (between Terrain and Bulldoze) has four tabs:

• Unlock: in Career, digging ponds unlocks at resort level 2 (Local favourite). Everything else in the drawer is available from the start, and Sandbox has it all.
• Ponds need nearly level ground, at least two tiles from other water, buildings and pistes (three from lifts). They cost about $70 per water tile plus earthworks (a 5×5 pond is roughly $1,500 to $3,000); filling in costs $35 per tile. A pond freezes over in winter like a natural lake and counts as a lake for a Beach or Boat Rental. Digging works in every season.
• Boulders cost $25 each (removal $12). Decor costs $25 to $80 a piece (bench $60, lamp $80, flower bed $40, hedge $30, fence $25, wall $45) and the fountain $600; none has upkeep and the eraser is free. Decor needs dry, fairly level ground without trees or rocks, and occupies its tile.
• Undo and redo (Ctrl+Z) cover the whole drawer: one drag is one step. Its keys are listed in Shortcuts.