Geomerging Anything to Specific Angles (Includes Calculations)

**SUPER RISKY EDIT PART**

People have been mentioning that they are having trouble understanding the simple maths that I included in this tutorial isn't necessary to use the technique. It is merely meant to help you comprehend as well as geomerge with mathematical precision as Jpec put it.

First off, the Law of Singes, Tangent, and Cosines.. are all part of a group that deal only with finding an angle or length of a triangle.. as long as you have the right numbers to start with.

For those of you who haven't heard the word, SOH-CAH-TOA! (A tribal chant as my math teacher put it).. it is a way to easily remember which numbers sine, cosine, and tangent are grouped with.

Sine is ALWAYS grouped with the opposite length, and the hypotenuse length
Tangent is ALWAYS grouped with the opposite length, and the adjacent length
Cosine is ALWAYS grouped with the adjacent length, and the hypotenuse length, as seen below.



Keep in mind that all Sine Cosine and Tangent are not stuck in the bottom right corner like seen in the image. You can place them wherever you have or want an angle.

In this tutorial, you could technically use any of the three. I used tangent because it was convenient at the time, however any of these laws will work. (When I say laws, I mean that these are mathematically proven algorithms that work no matter where you use them in the math world).

That's why, in the tutorial below.. you will see (or had seen) that I used the Pythagorean theorem (another mathematical law that lets you find the length of another triangle side).. that way I wouldn't be limited to any one single law of sine cosine or tangent. Once you have all three triangle side lengths, you can easily find any angle of a structure, to make sure you are performing the geo-merge properly. Again, it is NOT required to use math while making these complicated angles! 9 times out of 10, you will get the angle you want, but there will always be those odd situations where you're not sure what angle you need, and that's where the math portion of this tutorial comes in handy.

** END EPIC EDIT OF DEATH **

Now, I know people have already gone to extreme lengths to explain how geo-merging works on angles. However, I was constantly frustrated how all of the ways people geomerge on angles are always defined by angles of objects already on the map. The point of this mathematical and over the top guide is to teach you, the forger.. how to geomerge on any specific angle you want. This is the first time I have attempted to 'pick' my own angle for geomerging, so there is a chance it could be made simpler. For understanding purposes, I will include many.. many screenshots.

The first thing you want to do (obviously) is pick the angle at which you wish to set an object. I have not calculated the angles that the objects in the screenshots are at, so please bare (bare, bear?) with me. The first thing I did was take a 'Block, Large' and place it on the ground. Next, I placed a 'Wall, Single' flush with the 'Block, Large'... so it would create a perfect 90 degree angle in regard to the ground. Making sure the wall is a perfect 90 degrees is not vital.. but it can skew where you want the object to ultimately be.



Here's where the math comes in. First off, let us set the height of one 'Wall, Single' to one. As seen in the picture, We have 10 walls stacked neatly against the wall that is standing at 90 degrees.. which means that we have 10 different heights we could set the block double to.

We need to consider all of the different lengths that are taking part in creating this triangle. The bottom plane of the 'Block, Double' is part of the triangle, the vertical wall is part of the triangle, and the floor is part of the triangle. Remembering before that our standard of measurement is one wall length, the Hypotenuse (length of the bottom of the 'Block, Double') is subsequently 2. The floor length is unknown, and obviously the height of the wall (in this case) is one. If you choose to only make 5 wall's height, then it is 5 divided by 10... or .5 by our standard of measurement. If you chose 7 wall heights, then it is .7 of our standard of measurement. In other words, move the decimal place to the left one to convert it to our standard.



So to recap, we know that..
- The angle connecting the ground and the vertical 'Wall, Single' is 90 degrees.
- The length of the vertical wall is 1
- The length of the floor is unknown
- The length of the base of the 'Block, Double' is 2

Now, you guessed it.. we're going to use the Pythagorean Theorem to find the length of the floor. So, 1^2+ x^2 = 2^2.

Simplify and you have 1+x^2 = 4
Take away 1 from each side and you have x^2 = 3
Therefore, the length of floor is x = sqroot(3) -- According to my calculator, the official length is 1.73 wall lengths.

Now, I bet at this point you're wondering.. why does any of this matter? Well any mathmatician knows that when you change an angle of any part of a triangle, the length of the sides subsequently change. I don't want to go too far in depth, because I am including the mathmatics so you can understand that 10 wall lengths and an object placed over it will not always equal 45 degrees (At 10 wall lengths).

So we have filled in the holes of what we need to find the angle of the 'Block, Double' I have just placed. ((Note to the reader, make sure your calcuators is in degrees, not radians.. I wasted 5 minutes wondering why my awesome Tangent equation wsn't working))

So, after plugging in the equation: Tan-1(1.73/1).. it spat out 30.01.



This means that the triangle we created is a perfect 30, 60, 90 degree triangle. From here, it's a simple matter of putting braces on your 'Block, Double'... and pushing it in. The first thing you want to do is put braces on the sides of the 'Block, Double'. I neglected to do this as I was forging (mainly because I was winging it).. I started with the top and bottom first, and then did the sides. For the bottom brace of the 'Block, Double'... simply place a man cannon underneath it, and then slide a 'Wall, Double' into place. It's important that your bottom piece has a bit of a lip on it, because you're going to be using it later.



Now, you want to extend the top brace (mainly because once you start to push the block in, there's a possibility that the block will escape via this hole. You can extend your top brace by placing another wall double on top of the brace. Then, place a man cannon under it, and slide a 'Wall, Single' into place. Once the 'Wall, Single' settles, delete the 'Wall, Double' you made moments ago. The extended brace you created should create a straight line.



Next, you're going to need the items that will push the 'Block, Double' into place. So what you're going to do is go to either of the side braces, and set them both not to spawn.. and start a new round. Now, you want to place a man cannon inside of the hollow chamber AS FAR BACK INTO THE CHAMBER AS YOU CAN GET IT!! If you do not push it all the way back, I can guarantee that the man, cannon will make it impossible to get an item in there. Create a 'Block, Tall' and push it into the chamber, let is settle, and then move the man cannon down the 30 degree angle slope. Create another 'Block, Tall' and place it where there other 'Block, Tall' is.



Respawn the 'Wall, Doubles' from before and then respawn the 'Block, Double'. The block double should be interlocked with the two 'Block, Tall's you just made.

As a final precaution, place man cannons where the block will be pushed into the ground on either side, to prevent it from falling in. Now (This is necessary as the 'Block, Double' tends to shoot out of your braces. It would rather die than go into the ground) Place 2 'Block, Huge's on either side of the 'Wall, Doubles' This will ensure a perfect Geo-Merging. Now, simply double tap the 'Block, Double' once or twice, and it will be pushed into the ground.




Delete your braces, and you're done! And just to follow up on the importance of mathmatics in this complicated technique, I will show you that the block was indeed pushed into the ground at 30 degrees.

Known Numbers:
Hypotenuse: 1
Leg 1: .5
Leg 2: Unknown

.5^2+x^2 = 1^2
.25+x^2 = 1
x^2 = .75
x = .866

New Known Numbers:
Leg 2: .866

Tan x = .5/.866
x = Tan-1(.5/.866)
x = 30.0007 degrees

There you go! The measures of your angle was maintained, and you have successfully pushed a 'Block, Double' into the floor.

---- Explaining Why I Included Math ----
​

I included math because, as I stated previously, if any length of a triangle is changed.. then the angles and other lengths change accordingly. In this case, the angle ended up being 30 degrees because it caused the hypotenuse to be two times greater than the original height you picked. HOWEVER! If you replace the 'Block, Double' with a 'Block, Single'.. there would be enormous changes. Instead of the angle being 30 degrees, it would be 45 degrees. This all changes proportionally depending on the initial vertical wall height, and depending on which object you used.

If you did want the 'Block, Double' to be angled at 45 degrees, you would have needed to add an extra 10 walls to the stack.

You technically don't have to have a calculator while you are forging, but for precision's sake.. and in the case where you need a specific angle to connect two platforms, I can guarantee this will come in handy. There are so many exceptions that I need to fill up, However I have already run out of time I allotted myself for writing this. If you have any questions, don't hesitate to ask.. I'll be happy to answer them.

 

I'm sorry lol.. I didn't want to take that away from you. I've known about it for a few months, but I figured people already knew about vertical floating with man cannons, so I didn't bother posting about it. Anyway, I went as far in depth as I could at this time... but the weekend's almost up, and I need to get cracking on homework.

 

Just as a quick message to everybody who applies: I don't know what it is, but everybody seems to have the notion that doing difficult tasks such as geo-merging, interlocking, and creating complex structures should be brainless, easy things to do. I just want to correct you guys there for whoever has that notion. Forging can never really be easy unless two things are true. One: You half ass it... or two: you rip somebody else off. Just like in life, nothing is going to just be given to you without some sort of cost. Door geomerging was a lucky break, but the chances that Bungie included another object similar to a door are slim to none. I'm not saying you guys are wrong for wanting it to be easy, believe me.. sometimes I wish I could just press a button and my vision would be finished in an instant, but it can't. I'm just saying that instead of hoping that magically an item will appear that allows for easy geomerging, learn the techniques, work with them, and find ways to make them better. I don't come up with complex forging strategies like this by daydreaming about how it would be easier if I had this or that. I did it by going into forge, doing trial and error, and finding the best usable strategy to do anything I want.

I'm not sure if you guys know, but you can geo-merge and interlock on 3 axis, not just 2. Yet again, I'm working on putting together a guide for it.. but as I keep saying, you can only find these things if you experiment and create methods yourselves.

 

I still don't get what the big deal is about Forging 101, or why you keep asking to move it. On other forums, I would make a guide and move on! What's wrong with you people?! Brain.. overloading.. execute self destruct..

*boom*

(on a serious note, I don't mind if the mods want to move it, because I know from forum experience that forums, moderators, devs in game, mmorpgs, and all other things similar are dictatorships alike. You don't want to know how many times I have gotten banned for 'Stepping out of line'. So if you want to move it, be my guest... I'm just here as a slave to yet another system that can ban people in a single click while laughing from behind their desk as they do it)