SmarterHoe

A comprehensive, precision terrain-editing overhaul for the Valheim hoe. SmarterHoe equips you with a professional suite of terraforming tools — from laser-flat plateau leveling and multi-waypoint spline road carving to full multi-step undo/redo, 3D previews, 9-language localization, and server-authoritative dedicated server synchronization — all while staying fully balanced for survival play.

Features

⏪ Multi-Step Undo & Redo System ([Alt+Z] / [Alt+Y])

Made a mistake, cut too deep, or over-flattened a hillside? Press [Alt+Z] (or [Ctrl+Z]) to undo previous terrain changes step-by-step. Press [Alt+Y] (or [Ctrl+Y] / [Shift+Alt+Z]) to redo.

• Universal tool coverage: Works on Altitude Leveling, Instant Plateau, Soften, Restore Nature, Spline Ramps, vanilla Raise Earth, Mud Roads, Paved Stone Roads, and Cultivate.
• Continuous sweep grouping: Holding left-click to drag-level or pave groups the entire continuous stroke into a single atomic undo entry.
• Smart Waypoint step-back: Pressing the Undo key while ramp waypoints are active automatically steps back the most recent waypoint first before reverting terrain.
• Full texture & grass restoration: Undoing fully restores dirt, grass, and stone paint masks and synchronizes clutter in real time.

🔒 Altitude Lock — Laser-Flat Ground

Press [L] to toggle locking your elevation. Every subsequent hoe click levels terrain to that exact height, guaranteeing a perfectly flat surface across hills and slopes.

• Snap to Building Floors: Aim at any placed wood or stone floor piece and press Middle Mouse Button to snap the locked altitude to that floor's exact height.
• Hold-to-Repeat Elevation Tuning: Hold down [PageUp] or [PageDown] to smoothly and rapidly adjust elevation without spamming buttons. Features a small delay before continuous movement begins to prevent accidental overshooting on single taps. Hold [Shift] for a 5x speed multiplier.

⬛ Instant Plateau — 1-Click Razor-Flat Flattening

A dedicated hoe build-menu tool that instantly flattens the entire brush area to the elevation directly under your cursor in a single click. Eliminates gradual multi-click leveling and stepped ridges.

〰️ Smooth Ramp — Multi-Waypoint Road Auto-Carver

Place waypoints ([K]) across rugged terrain to plot out a mountain trail or highway. Press [H] to instantly auto-carve a smooth, graded road corridor through all waypoints using Catmull-Rom spline interpolation.

• Cart-Friendliness Color Guide: Live 3D spine dynamically indicates slope steepness:
  • Green: ≤20° — Cart-Friendly (✓)
  • Yellow: 20–25° — Steep for Carts (!)
  • Red: >25° — Too Steep for Carts (✗)
• Shift+Carve: Hold [Shift] while pressing [H] to auto-carve the entire road directly in paved cobblestone.

🔄 True Square & Circle Brushes (Oriented Deformation)

• Press [G] to toggle between circular and square brush geometry.
• True Rotated Square Alignment: Square brush rotates smoothly using your mouse wheel or arrow keys ([Left Arrow] / [Right Arrow]). Fixed vanilla Valheim's axis-aligned diamond distortion so raised and leveled terrain aligns with the yellow indicator box.
• Press [Home] to instantly reset square rotation back to 0° (North).

🌀 Soften Terrain

Gently blends sharp ridges and cliff creases into natural, smooth transitions without flattening the terrain to a plane.

↩️ Restore Terrain

Resets terrain within the brush radius back to its original unmodified world-gen state — erases all digging, leveling deltas, and paint modifications.

🪓 Clear Debris

Instantly removes trees, logs, stumps, rocks, boulders, and bushes within the hoe radius. In Balanced Survival mode, requires an Axe for trees and a Pickaxe for rocks — preventing progression bypass while eliminating manual clutter.

📐 Extended Reach & 8m Limit Bypass

• Extended Hoe Reach (20m default, configurable 5m–50m): Terraform comfortably without constantly jogging forward; automatically restores vanilla reach upon unequipping.
• Bypass 8m Height Limit: Removes Valheim's restrictive ±8m height clamp (AllowBeyondGameLimit = true), allowing you to level deep canyons or raise towering mountain citadels up to a configurable limit (default: 50m).

🔼 Adjustable Raise Height & 3D Volumetric Preview

• Press [E] to enter Height Mode; scroll the mouse wheel to adjust single-click raise elevation (0.05m to 8.0m per click).
• Press [Q] to enter Area Mode; scroll the mouse wheel to adjust brush radius (0.5m to 20m).
• 3D Translucent Preview: Displays a live 3D translucent cylinder (or rotated cube box when Square brush is active) showing the exact raise volume and height before clicking, color-coded by reach.
• Camera Zoom Suppression: Prevents third-person camera jumping while scrolling to adjust brush radius or raise height.

🌐 Multi-Language Localization (9 Languages + Auto-Detection)

Automatically detects your active Valheim language (Language = "Auto"). Custom tool names, hover descriptions, cart slope ratings, and HUD notifications are natively translated into: English, German, French, Spanish, Russian, Simplified Chinese, Portuguese (Brazilian), Polish, and Swedish.

🖥️ Dedicated Server Support & ServerSync

• Fully integrated with ServerSync for dedicated servers.
• Server Authority: Server owners can enforce CostMode = BalancedSurvival, reach limits, max radius, stone/stamina costs, station checks, and height limits across all connected clients.
• Client-Optional & Vanilla Server Compatibility (ModRequired = false):
  • Connect to vanilla or non-modded servers without being kicked or rejected.
  • Vanilla players can join modded servers without being declined.
• Server Lock Enforcement: When locked by a server, clients cannot bypass survival costs with [B] (displays on-screen notice and HUD lock badge). Admins in adminlist.txt remain exempt and can adjust settings in real-time.

Brush & Height Options

• Circle / Square toggle — Press [G] to toggle between circular and square brush geometry. Square brush rotates with your player direction.
• Radius adjustment — Press [Q] and scroll the mouse wheel (or hold [Alt] + scroll) to resize the brush radius (0.5m – 20m).
• Raise height adjustment — Press [E] and scroll the mouse wheel (or hold [Alt+Shift] + scroll) to adjust raise delta (0.05m – 8.0m).
• Ramp width adjustment — Press [ / ] to adjust the road corridor width (1m – 20m).
• Vanilla paving radius — Vanilla mud_road, paved_road, and cultivate pieces scale to match your current brush radius.

Balanced Survival Mode & Dynamic Resource Scaling

SmarterHoe is balanced by default for survival gameplay — all terrain operations realistically cost resources and stamina just like vanilla building:

🛠️ Freebuild Creative Mode ([B])

Press [B] at any time to toggle into Freebuild Creative Mode:

• 0 Resources: No stone or materials ever required or deducted from your inventory.
• 0 Crafting Stations: Terraform anywhere without needing nearby workbenches or stonecutters.
• 0 Durability & Stamina: Unlimited terraforming without stamina exhaustion or tool breakage.
• Clean HUD: Stone requirements automatically vanish from the build bar while in Freebuild mode. Server owners can lock cost mode to Balanced Survival via ServerSync.

Controls & Hotkeys Summary

Console Commands (F5)

Open the Valheim in-game console with [F5] (requires -console Steam launch option) for instant terrain utilities:

Configuration

Config file: BepInEx/config/com.jubaroo.smarterhoe.cfg

All settings are configurable in-game using the BepInEx Configuration Manager ([F1]) or by editing the config file directly. Synced settings are enforced by the server when connected to a dedicated server running SmarterHoe:

Dedicated Server Support & ServerSync

SmarterHoe features seamless ServerSync integration with full server-authoritative configuration:

• Server Authority: Server owners can install SmarterHoe on dedicated servers to enforce balanced rules across all connected players:
  • Enforce CostMode = BalancedSurvival to prevent players from toggling into freebuild creative mode ([B] toggle is locked on clients with on-screen notice).
  • Enforce reach limits (HoeReach), maximum brush radius (MaxBrushRadius), maximum terrain elevation deltas (MaxTerrainDelta), stamina/durability costs, station requirements (RequireCraftingStation), and tool requirements (RequireToolsForDebris).
  • Server admins listed in adminlist.txt are automatically exempt and can adjust settings in real-time with instant synchronization to all connected clients.
• Client-Optional & Vanilla Server Compatibility (ModRequired = false):
  • Connecting to Vanilla / Non-Modded Servers: You can safely join any vanilla or community server with SmarterHoe installed on your client. You will never be kicked, disconnected, or declined; your local client settings apply cleanly.
  • Vanilla Players on Modded Servers: If a server owner installs SmarterHoe on their dedicated server, players without SmarterHoe can still join the server without being rejected.

Compatibility

• Multiplayer — terrain operations modify Valheim's native TerrainComp heightmaps and ZDO networks; all players see changes in real time.
• Dedicated Servers — fully supported with headless optimizations (GraphicsDeviceType.Null) and live server-authoritative config sync.
• Client-Optional — works as a client-side only mod on vanilla servers, or as an enforced server mod on dedicated servers.
• Known conflicts — Mods that also patch Player.UpdatePlacementGhost or deeply override hoe piece behavior may conflict.

Credits

Built by Jubaroo.
Valheim terrain system research inspired by the broader Valheim modding community.

Changelog

1.1.3

Fixed

• Dedicated Server Height Limit Protection & Terrain Desync Fix: Resolved a critical issue where players connecting with SmarterHoe as a client to a dedicated server without the mod installed experienced massive terrain corruption (ground stretching into 100m spires or plunging into bottomless abysses, causing basement carpets and structures to collapse).
• Client-Side Dedicated Server Auto-Clamp: SmarterHoe now automatically checks whether the connected remote server is running SmarterHoe via ServerSync. If the server does not have the mod installed, AllowBeyondGameLimit is strictly disabled on the client, enforcing vanilla Valheim's ±8m limit to guarantee 100% sync and zero physics anomalies.
• Safe Out-of-the-Box Defaults: Changed AllowBeyondGameLimit default from true to false in config. Extreme height modifications (>8m) are now opt-in for dedicated server owners and singleplayer worlds.
• Native TerrainComp Passthrough: RaiseTerrain, LevelTerrain, and SmoothTerrain now immediately yield to vanilla Valheim methods when using circular brushes within standard game limits, ensuring full performance and zero behavior deviations.

1.1.2

Fixed

• Build Hammer Object Rotation & Menu Isolation: Fixed an issue where structures placed with the build hammer that include terrain modifiers or terrain operations (such as campsite tents from Odin's Campsite or class altars from Almanac Classes) were erroneously detected as hoe terrain tools. This prevented rotating those structures and caused the SmarterHoe HUD menu to appear while using the hammer.
• SmarterHoe now strictly verifies that the player is actively holding a hoe before rendering any HUD elements, intercepting mouse scroll wheel or adjustment keys, or modifying placement rotation.
• Removed unwanted prefab rotation mutation so build hammer pieces permanently retain their proper rotational controls.

1.1.1

Fixed

• ComfyGizmo + PerfectPlacement Compatibility: Resolved a conflict where loading both ComfyGizmo and PerfectPlacement alongside SmarterHoe would cause Harmony to fail patching Player.UpdatePlacementGhost, disabling the mod entirely. SmarterHoe now uses a resilient transpiler that handles both the vanilla and PerfectPlacement-modified IL sequences correctly.
• Added soft BepInDependency declarations for ComfyGizmo and PerfectPlacement so load order is handled gracefully.
• Hoe tools now correctly suppress ComfyGizmo's 3D gizmo axis rings during terrain operations.
• Terrain tool rotations are clamped to the horizontal plane when PerfectPlacement is active.

1.1.0

Added

• Dedicated Server Support & ServerSync Integration (ModRequired = false):

  • Integrated official ServerSync system with server-authoritative configuration enforcement.
  • Server owners can install SmarterHoe on dedicated servers and enforce balanced settings across all connected players:
    • Resource Cost Mode Enforcement: Server owners can enforce CostMode = BalancedSurvival to prevent clients from toggling freebuild creative mode ([B] key is locked on clients with on-screen notice).
    • Synced Balance & Limits: Stone costs (StonePerCubicMeter, StonePerPavedSquare), stamina and durability costs, station requirements (RequireCraftingStation), debris requirements (RequireToolsForDebris), reach distance (HoeReach), maximum brush radius (MaxBrushRadius), and maximum terrain elevation deltas (MaxTerrainDelta, AllowBeyondGameLimit).
  • Client-Optional & Vanilla Server Compatibility (ModRequired = false):
    • SmarterHoe is completely optional on both client and server!
    • Players with SmarterHoe can connect to vanilla or non-modded servers without being kicked, disconnected, or declined. Local client settings apply seamlessly.
    • Vanilla players without SmarterHoe can connect to dedicated servers running SmarterHoe without being rejected.
  • In-Game Lock Enforcement & HUD Indicators:
    • Non-admin players connecting to a locked dedicated server cannot toggle cost mode using [B] (displays HUD notice: Cost mode is locked by the server).
    • Top HUD panel clearly displays <color=#FF6666>[Locked by Server]</color> when server settings are enforced.
    • Server admins listed in adminlist.txt are automatically exempt (lockexempt = true) and can modify settings in real-time with instant synchronization to all connected clients.
  • Headless Dedicated Server Optimizations:
    • Visualizers, line renderers, crosshairs, and icon texture loaders cleanly bypass headless dedicated server environments (GraphicsDeviceType.Null).

• Multi-Step Undo & Redo System ([Alt+Z] or [Ctrl+Z], [Alt+Y] or [Ctrl+Y]):

  • Deep chunk-level undo/redo support across all terrain actions: Leveling, Instant Plateau, Soften, Restore, Smooth Ramp auto-carving, Vanilla Raise Ground, Mud Road, Paved Stone Road, and Cultivate.
  • Continuous sweep grouping: holding left-click to drag-level or pave groups the entire sweep into a single atomic undo entry rather than cluttering history.
  • Multi-heightmap boundary handling: ramps and large brushes touching multiple terrain chunks snapshot and restore across all affected chunks cleanly.
  • Waypoint step-back integration: pressing the Undo key when ramp waypoints are active automatically steps back the most recent waypoint first before undoing terrain changes.

• Extended Hoe Reach (20m default, configurable 5m–50m):

  • Dramatically improves terraforming ergonomics by extending hoe placement reach while the tool is equipped. Automatically restores vanilla reach upon unequipping or character death.

• Dedicated Keyboard Rotation Hotkeys & Configurable Step Size:

  • Rotate the square brush smoothly using dedicated keyboard hotkeys or mouse scroll wheel:
    • RotateSquareLeftKey (default: LeftArrow): Rotates square counter-clockwise.
    • RotateSquareRightKey (default: RightArrow): Rotates square clockwise.
    • ResetSquareRotationKey (default: Home): Snaps square rotation back to 0° (North).
  • SquareRotationMode: Choose between ScrollWheelAndButtons (default), ButtonsOnly (keyboard only), or ScrollWheelOnly.
  • SquareRotationDegrees: Configure degrees to rotate per click/step (default: 22.5°, configurable from 5.0° to 90.0°).

• Expanded Multi-Language Localization (9 Languages + Auto-Detection):

  • Built-in localization covering the top 9 languages played in Valheim: English, German, French, Spanish, Russian, Simplified Chinese, Portuguese (Brazilian), Polish, and Swedish.
  • Auto-Detection (Language = "Auto"): Automatically detects the active game language from Valheim's language settings with zero manual configuration needed.
  • Native Tool & Menu Translation: Patched Valheim's native Localization.Localize engine to dynamically localize custom tool names, descriptions, cart slope friendliness ratings (Cart Friendly (✓), Steep for Carts (!), Too Steep for Carts (✗)), brush shapes, cost modes, and HUD notifications.

• Hold-to-Repeat Altitude Fine-Tuning with Initial Delay:

  • Holding down PageUp or PageDown now smoothly and continuously raises or lowers the locked altitude without requiring dozens of individual button presses.
  • Features an initial delay (AltitudeHoldDelay, default: 0.35s) before continuous movement begins to prevent accidental overshooting on single taps.
  • Smooth rapid elevation adjustment (AltitudeRepeatRate, default: 0.05s) with real-time HUD notification updates.
  • Hold Shift while tapping or holding PageUp/PageDown for a 5x elevation speed multiplier.

• Camera-Zoom Suppression While Adjusting:

  • Eliminates jarring camera zoom in/out while adjusting brush radius or raise height with the mouse wheel. Configurable mode: WhileAdjusting (suppresses only during active adjustment), AlwaysWithHoe, or Disabled.

• Bypass Valheim's 8m Terrain Height Limit (AllowBeyondGameLimit = true):

  • Removes the engine's hardcoded ±8m ceiling and floor clamps in TerrainComp.ApplyToHeightmap, LevelTerrain, RaiseTerrain, and custom SmarterHoe tools. Allows raising towering earthen bastions or excavating deep moats/canals up to a configurable limit (default: 50m).

• Adjustable Raise Height & Q / E Mode Switch:

  • Press [E] to select Height adjustment mode, or [Q] to select Area adjustment mode.
  • Mouse wheel dynamically adjusts raise delta (0.05m to 8.0m per click) when Height mode is selected or when holding Alt+Shift+Scroll.
  • Vanilla raise ground now scales cleanly with the selected raise height and radius, with proportional stone consumption in Survival mode.

• 3D Translucent Raise Cylinder Preview:

  • Live 3D volumetric cylinder preview showing the exact raise height and radius at the crosshair hit point, color-coded by reach (customizable valid and invalid colors and opacities).

• Dedicated Console Commands:

  • resetterrain [radius]: Reverts terrain modifications within a specified radius back to natural world-gen state (undoable!).
  • remove_forestry [radius]: Clears trees, logs, stumps, and vegetation within the radius.
  • cleardebris [radius]: Clears all rocks, boulders, vegetation, and obstacles within the radius.
  • smarterhoe_undo & smarterhoe_redo: Terminal commands to step backward and forward through history.

• Memory Safety & Clean Session Transitions:

  • History automatically clears on world exit (Game.OnDestroy) to ensure zero memory leaks across worlds and server hops.

• HUD Undo / Redo Counter & Real-Time Feedback:

  • All 6 hoe mode HUD panels now display current undo/redo step availability in real time: [Alt+Z] Undo (N) | [Alt+Y] Redo (M).
  • Real-time rotation angle and active control bindings displayed on square brush HUD, accompanied by instant on-screen toast notification banners.
  • Active adjustment badge beside the crosshair dynamically indicates current Area / Height values when modified.

• True Freebuild Creative Mode (Zero Resources, Zero Stations, Zero Durability, Zero Stamina):

  • Fixed an issue where Freebuild mode ([B]) still required stone in inventory, consumed stone on click, required a nearby Workbench or Stonecutter, and drained stamina and tool durability.
  • Patched Player.HaveRequirements, Player.ConsumeResources, Character.HaveStamina, Player.GetBuildStamina, and Player.GetPlaceDurability so all terrain operations in Freebuild mode require zero materials, consume zero resources, bypass crafting stations completely, and never drain stamina or tool durability.
  • The HUD requirement bar automatically hides stone requirements in Freebuild mode for a clean creative experience.

• Dynamic Raise Ground & Paved Road Resource Scaling (Height & Area):

  • Fixed vanilla Raise Ground only requiring 2 stone regardless of how high or large the terrain being raised was.
  • Stone cost in BalancedSurvival mode now dynamically scales with physical volume: proportional to both brush Area (radius and Circle vs Square geometry) and Height (SelectedRaiseHeight relative to vanilla's 0.5m baseline).
  • Dynamic HUD requirement sync: the bottom HUD requirement bar immediately displays the exact calculated stone requirement (e.g. 24 Stone) and flashes red if inventory is insufficient.
  • Placement ghost and 3D Translucent Raise Cylinder automatically turn red when stone is insufficient.
  • Real-time stone cost display in the top-middle HUD panel and crosshair adjustment badge as radius, height, or shape is modified.
  • Server-authoritative balance: scales with StonePerCubicMeter and StonePerPavedSquare configs synced from dedicated servers.

Fixed & Improved

• ComfyGizmo & PerfectPlacement Third-Party Mod Interoperability:
  • Fixed a critical incompatibility where loading both ComfyGizmo and PerfectPlacement alongside SmarterHoe caused a Harmony transpiler collision on Player.UpdatePlacementGhost, resulting in SmarterHoe's patch chain failing and disabling the mod.
  • Implemented ModCompatibilityManager with a universal transpiler interceptor that seamlessly chains ComfyGizmo's rotation delegate after PerfectPlacement's rotation method without throwing IL matching exceptions.
  • Added soft dependency registration ([BepInDependency]) and post-patch repair hooks to restore broken transpiler chains automatically on startup.
  • Registered all custom terrain tool prefabs (SmarterHoe_*) into ComfyGizmo's IgnoredPrefabNames and suppressed 3D rotation gizmos when holding hoe tools, preventing unwanted pitch and roll on 2D terrain brushes.
  • Added an automatic fallback in Player.UpdatePlacement ensuring placement ghost updates, altitude lock, and square visualizers remain 100% active even if third-party mods interfere with UpdatePlacementGhost.
  • Added resilient per-class try-catch blocks around Harmony patch registration to prevent any single third-party hook failure from halting mod initialization.

1.0.1

Fixed & Improved

• Store Icon Transparency: Replaced icon with true 32-bit ARGB alpha transparency, fixing the gray checkerboard background on dark sites like Hexium and Thunderstore.
• Hotkey-Only Altitude Lock: Eliminated unwanted auto-locking on tool selection, hover, or clicks. Altitude locking only engages when explicitly pressing [L] or Middle-Click piece snapping. Automatically turns off when unequipping the hoe.
• Recipe Unlocking Safeguards: Added internal prefab names to known recipes list to guarantee all 6 custom hoe tools unlock properly across game restarts.
• Zero-Allocation Performance: Added spatial caching to boundary visualizers and zero-allocation capsule queries for debris clearing.

1.0.0

Added

• Altitude Lock ([L] or Middle-Click) — laser-flat terrain leveling locked to a fixed elevation. Activates strictly upon hotkey use (never auto-locks). Middle-click any building piece to snap the lock to its floor height.
• Instant Plateau — dedicated hoe build-menu tool that razor-flattens the entire brush area in a single click.
• Smooth Ramp Auto-Carver ([K] + [H]) — place waypoints and auto-carve smooth graded roads using Catmull-Rom spline interpolation. Supports curved switchbacks and multi-waypoint paths.
• Dynamic Slope Coloring — ramp guide spine changes color in real time by slope angle: green ≤20° (cart-friendly), yellow 20–25° (steep), red >25° (too steep for carts).
• Soften Terrain — gently blend rough terrain without hard edges.
• Restore Terrain — reset terrain within the brush to original world-gen state.
• Clear Debris — instantly remove trees, logs, stumps, rocks, and ore deposits within the brush radius.
• Circle / Square Brush Toggle ([G]) — switch between circular and square brush geometry; square brush rotates with player direction.
• Adjustable Brush Radius — Alt + Scroll or [Alt] + [ / ] resizes 0.5m–15m. Vanilla paving pieces scale to match.
• Balanced Survival Mode — stone consumption, stamina drain, tool durability wear, crafting station proximity checks, and tool requirements for debris clearing. Press [B] to toggle between Balanced and Freebuild.