This is a quick guide for players on Build Your Own Mech on how to make sure their build keeps it’s saving integrity.
[HOW TO AVOID SHIFTS:]
(QUICK ANSWER: BUILD ANCHORED BETWEEN SAVES/LOADS; unanchor before using)
When your building parts are unanchored, all parts shift position due to joint creating! This means that when the system creates the welds between parts, these parts tend to slightly offset from each other.
To avoid the shift glitch you need to BUILD ANCHORED. Shifts are where parts form cracks between connections until they break off, and this only happens while parts are unanchored. This means that if you are going to start building something, ANCHOR PARTS (on your menu). If you are going to improve something in your saves, then LOAD ANCHORED.
If you need to test something, Save it, THEN test it, and to continue, load it again ANCHORED.
[WHY DOES THIS HAPPEN?]
What Anchoring does is keep your building parts from moving (this is, they won’t be affected by any physical force such as gravity), so nothing will be able to be tested for the most part. And because of that, you won’t know it, but at the moment you anchor, all “surface joints”, or welds of your building parts are broken (destroyed), and thus the CFrame calculation will undo any offsets created by these joints. However, every time you unanchor, it creates the joints again, so that your creation is usable again
Creating joints needs to be done of course to use your mech, but we want to minimize the amount of times you do this, or it will shift worse and worse. (test by clicking anchor and unanchor multiple times, and soon you’ll see it fall apart.)
[ DISCLAIMER: This will MOSTLY prevent shifts ]
Shifts are something that are nearly impossible to completely stop. For one, you should also note that WEDGES ALWAYS SHIFT. This is something some have even noticed in Roblox Studio. For this reason, we offer a ‘Fake Wedge’ (in the Polyhedra section of the Building Parts isle) to avoid the glitch if it fits your needs.
[ LASTLY: How to fix a shifted mech ]
If you have parts breaking off or cracks forming, then you probably have a shifted mech. The fix is simple but time consuming: Start building anchored properly (see above) and re-place the parts individually.
I wish there was a better way, but alas most of us have had to deal with this at some point.
Work smart, save time, enjoy it to the fullest!
Best of luck,
Sharky99
BYM Developer
(3/23/2017)