Enshrouded updates will expand the building tools, tweak resource respawning and fix progress loss

Now see here Ollie Toms, supposed guides editor of this supposed videogames website - if Enshrouded really does have "the best building system in the survival genre" then why does the floor of my hovel look like a petrified sneeze? I was innocently carving myself a nice stone foundation last night when the Devil jogged my elbow and I dug a massive, raggedy trench straight through it. I've spent an hour now trying to fill in the trench and flatten it out, to no avail. There's always a jaggedy bit right in the middle, and I'm getting displaced trypophobia from the awareness that my efforts have seeded the terrain beneath with random cavities.

What's worse, there is no mention of enhancing the floor-levelling functionality in this Keen Games forum post on Enshrouded's various launch issues, which they are even now racing to fix. Instead, it's all talk of frame rates, multiplayer stability and dedicated servers not appearing. Somebody rush me a cement mixer, stat, or I'm moving back to Valheim.

"We're hard at work working the next patch, and will continue to make stability a priority to ensure that everyone can enjoy Enshrouded," the post begins. "Once we have these out of the way (we estimate that it will take us 2-3 weeks to feel confident), we will look into sharing with you our first roadmap for Enshrouded."

The post does mention some changes to the building system, in fairness. The developers are working on an update that will let players snap building templates to pre-existing structures in the world, allowing you to more gracefully resettle those ruined towns and farmsteads. But the higher priorities are bugs that interfere with play, of course.

These include an issue where players get stuck in the Flame Temple, which can currently only be fixed by restarting. You'll find the mouse scroll wheel also sometimes duplicates inputs when you're running at higher than 60fps, which can naturally be worked around by capping the game at 60FPS in your graphics card control panel.

Speaking of frame-rates, the developers note that "sometimes players can feel like their client is limited to significantly lower framerates than it should be" with "camera movements feeling like they are 60fps, even though the game is running at 200". It's not clear what's causing this, but it's not "an engine limitation" and again, capping Enshrouded at 60fps might address the perception of performance drops.

As regards dedicated servers, the developers are working on making it easier to find them and suggest you tag dedicated servers as favourites in Steam. If dedicated servers don't appear in your server browser, it's possible there's a mismatch between the server and game client, which might require you to update the game. Or it could be that your query port is blocked - "please double check that the QueryPort is GamePort+1 and that you have those ports open through your firewall for both TCP/UDP". Failing all of the above, give it a couple of minutes in case the server list is still loading.

If Enshrouded won't launch at all when you press the play button, that could be because you're using the Asus software GPU Tweak 3 - the developers suggest disabling this while they work on a fix. And if you're having issues with multiplayer stability, Keen Games suggest trying the following:

- Players have some UI information in the game to judge if the server (host) is managing the load well and to get information on the current latency of the client.

- Just press ESC. If the dot for the server (Hosting load) is yellow or red it is better to host on a different machine or to play with fewer players.

- It is also possible to check the latency to the server at this location in case the game experiences lags or rubberbanding.

Bear in mind, too, that if your Steam profile is set to private, the multiplayer sessions you're hosting won't be visible to other players and Steam friends - they'll need to visit your profile in the Steam client and join the game from there.

Other issues include the game becoming unresponsive when you try to type in a character's name on a virtual keyboard using controllers, and players not earning quest progress when a boss is killed or the quest ending is triggered unless they're actually present, due to a discrepancy between server and client.

Last but not least, there's some stuff about how often mobs and resources respawn, which I find intriguing inasmuch as I like thinking about what gameworlds do out of sight, and to what extent they "remember" your escapades. Enshrouded's world is split into chunks that load when you're within 256 or 400 metres of them. Every two hours, mobs, resources and bosses in each chunk respawn, but the timer resets if you revisit the spot, forcing you to put stretches of the geography on cooldown. "We are aware that this is feeling too long for a lot of players and are looking into possible solutions," the developers note. "For the time being, you can either reload the map/restart the server, or stay far away for two hours."

I wonder if you can get the terrain to glitch by hanging around insistently nearby? Is there something Far Landsy to uncover here, perhaps? I love that kind of weirdness. Still, what I'm hungriest for at present is a decent planing tool and some kind of spirit level (this being a fantasy game, the "spirit" concerned is probably an actual phantom with a century-long backstory). If you're playing Enshrouded and have any home improvement tips, I'd welcome them - there's probably an unlock I've missed. Seriously, pls help. I can't leave the shack in good conscience till I've fixed the dang floor.

PS. I checked Ollie's Enshrouded building guide after writing this, and it turns out you can flatten ground with a Rake. Panic over, I guess. Instead of telling me how I can fix my floor, you can suggest an appropriate penance for having doubted our guides editor. Perhaps I'll build a monument to him in the game.