ScissorLift

A wooden lift on crossed iron scissor arms, pushed up by a fuel-burning hydraulic pump: press E and it carries you, your animals and your goods up to the next floor and back down, or take the stick and drive it slowly on its wheels where you need it.

Getting a cartload, a tamed animal or a whole group up to a high deck usually means long ramps or ladders. ScissorLift adds a Scissor lift, built with the hammer. Its plank deck rides on iron arms that fold flat at the bottom and open out as it rises, up to the height chosen for it, pushed by two hydraulic rams from a pump beside it. Every player sees it move the same way, and it stays where it was left through logouts and restarts.

Features

Scissor lift. A 2 × 2 m plank deck with a dark wooden rim and iron corners, on crossed iron arms with a bolt at every pivot, a base frame and a lever post on the deck. It fits a 2 × 2 m hole in a floor.
Hydraulics. Beside the base stands the pump: a wooden housing with a bronze oil tank, a firebox with a chimney, and hoses to two bronze rams that push the lowest X open; the rest of the arms follow.
Burns fuel. Going up and driving burn fuel in the pump (Coal by default, one for every 5 m). Going down is free. With too little fuel it goes as far as the fuel takes it.
Oil. A new material, made at the workbench from Resin. Each lift takes some to build, for its hydraulics.
Drive it. Take the stick on the deck and drive the lift slowly over the ground on its four wheels, with riders and all: forward and back, steering with the front wheels as a cart does. Its wheels roll over uneven ground, seams and small steps, and it leans with the ground under them. It stops at edges, deep drops, deep water and anything in the way.
It can fall over. On sloping ground a lift leans, and the higher its deck, the gentler the slope it can stand: raise the deck too high on a slope, or drive it onto ground too steep, and it falls over, deck and riders and all. Players near it are warned as it leans more and more. A fallen lift lies on its side until someone stands it up again. It is top heavy: most of its weight is the deck and whoever is on it.
Walk on. While the deck is all the way down, invisible ramps on the front, back and left let you walk onto it instead of jumping.
A lever on the ground. A lever by the pump sends the lift up and down from below, as the one on the deck does from above.
Arms that work. The arms fold and open as the deck moves. A lift that goes higher has more X stages: two up to 3.4 m, three up to 5 m, five up to 8 m, ten up to 16 m.
Up, down and stop. E sends it up to its top height and Shift + E down. While it moves, either one stops it, smoothly, wherever it is, as a real lift's buttons do.
Its own height. Shift + E on the pump sets how high each lift goes, from 1 m up to the host's highest lift (8 m by default).
Everyone on it rides. Players, tamed animals, creatures and dropped items on the deck go up and down with it, smoothly, without being thrown off at the top or left hanging in the air on the way down.
Stops for what is in the way. It stops short of a roof or beam above the deck, above the lever or above a rider's head, and of anyone standing under it. No one is crushed or pushed through a roof.
Safe to stand on. The hammer can't take a lift down while someone stands on the deck.
Creaks and clanks. An iron clank when it starts and stops and a wooden creak while it moves (the game's own iron gate and cart sounds), at a volume each player chooses.
Beeps. A steady beep while it drives, so everyone near it hears it coming, and fast, higher beeps while one of its wheels is off the ground as it drives or goes up or down.

How to use

The Scissor lift is in the Hammer's Misc tab and needs a Workbench. Default cost: 10 Fine wood, 10 Wood, 6 Iron and 2 Oil. Make Oil at the Workbench: 3 Resin each.

Build the lift on the ground or on a floor. Its corners snap to floor corners, so it lines up under a 2 × 2 m hole in the floor above. The pump stands beside the base, outside the 2 × 2 m, so leave it a little room on that side (the building ghost shows where).
Look at the pump and press Shift + E to set the lift's top height in metres: from where it stands to the top of the deck. A new lift goes up to 4 m.
Fuel the pump: look at it and press E to put in as much Coal as it holds (20), or use Coal on it from your hotbar.
Walk onto the folded deck (invisible ramps lead up to it from the front, back and left) and press E. It goes up to its top height; press Shift + E to go down again. Press either one while it moves to stop it where it is.
From the ground, use the lever by the pump (or anywhere on the lift) to call it down with Shift + E.
To drive, stand on the deck, look at the stick and press E. Forward and back drive the lift slowly, left and right steer its front wheels; jump to let go. Mind slopes with the deck up.
If it falls over, look at it and press E to stand it up again where it stood.

Key	Action
`E` on a lift	Go up to its top height
`Shift` + `E` on a lift	Go down
`E` or `Shift` + `E` while it moves	Stop
`E` on the pump	Put in fuel
`Shift` + `E` on the pump	Set its top height
`E` on the stick, standing on the deck	Drive: forward and back move it, left and right steer, jump lets go
`E` on a fallen lift	Stand it up again

Looking at a lift shows the deck's height, its top height, its fuel and what E and Shift + E do.

It speeds up and slows down gently at each end, and moves at 1 m/s in between by default.
With something in the way it stops 5 cm short, and says so to the player who pressed E and to anyone nearby. Clear the way and press E or Shift + E to carry on.
A lift with more stages folds a little higher: 0.37 m with two stages, 0.44 m with three, 0.57 m with five.
Nothing can be built on the deck, as on ships and carts; built pieces would stay behind in the air. A piece built in the lift's way stops it there.
Using a lift or changing its height needs the permission of any ward covering it.
Driving: 0.5 m/s by default, turning in a circle about 5 m across at full lock. Each wheel rolls up steps of up to 35 cm and down dips of up to 60 cm; the lift leans with the ground under its wheels and stops when the pump runs dry. It can't drive while the deck is up through a hole in a floor.
Falling over: with the deck folded a lift stands on slopes of over 50 degrees; with it at 2 m, about 24 degrees; at 4 m, about 13; at 8 m, about 7 (the Top heaviness setting changes this). It is steadiest towards the pump. Riders on it fall with it, and fall damage is the game's own. A lift built on a slope stands level until it is driven; then it leans with the ground.

Configuration

Settings are in BepInEx/config/anwo.ScissorLift.cfg and can be changed in game with a configuration manager.

1 - Lifts

Setting	Default	Scope	Description
Lift recipe	`FineWood:10,Wood:10,Iron:6`	Server	Cost of a lift, as `Item:Amount` pairs with prefab names (as in the game's files); applies without a restart
Highest lift	`8`	Server	How high any lift's deck can go, in metres (2-16). A lift set higher goes only this high; one standing higher comes down to it
Lift speed	`1`	Server	Speed in metres per second (0.25-2.5), with a gentle start and stop at each end
Lifts fall over	`true`	Server	A lift leaning on a slope falls over when its deck goes too high for the slope, or it's driven onto ground too steep for its deck's height. Off: lifts never fall over
Top heaviness	`1`	Server	How high a lift's weight sits, as a share of its deck's height (0.2-1.5). Higher: it falls over on gentler slopes with its deck up. 0.5: as before 1.2.1

2 - Sound

Setting	Default	Scope	Description
Lift sound volume	`0.7`	Client	Volume of the creak and the clanks (0-1). 0: lifts make no sound
Beep while driving	`true`	Client	A steady beep while a lift drives. Off: no beeping while driving
Fast beeps with a wheel off the ground	`true`	Client	Fast, higher beeps while one of a lift's wheels is off the ground and it is driven, its deck moves or someone holds its stick. Off: no fast beeps
Beep volume	`0.5`	Client	Volume of the beeps (0-1). 0: lifts never beep

3 - Fuel and oil

Setting	Default	Scope	Description
Lifts need fuel	`true`	Server	Lifts burn fuel going up and driving (going down is free). Off: no fuel needed
Fuel item	`Coal`	Server	What the pumps burn, by prefab name. One that doesn't exist means no fuel is needed
Metres per fuel	`5`	Server	How far one fuel item takes a lift, up and driving together (0.5-100)
Pump holds	`20`	Server	How many fuel items a pump holds (1-200)
Oil to build a lift	`2`	Server	Oil a new lift costs on top of its recipe (0-50). 0: none
Oil recipe	`Resin:3`	Server	Cost of one Oil at the Workbench, as `Item:Amount` pairs; applies without a restart

4 - Driving

Setting	Default	Scope	Description
Lifts can be driven	`true`	Server	The stick on the deck drives the lift on its wheels, steering with the front ones. Off: lifts stay where they are built
Driving speed	`0.5`	Server	Driving speed in metres per second (0.1-1.5)

5 - Getting on

Setting	Default	Scope	Description
Ramps onto the deck	`true`	Client	Invisible ramps up to the folded deck on the front, back and left, only while it's all the way down and not while you build. Off: no ramps

Multiplayer

Everyone needs ScissorLift, the host or dedicated server included. Jotunn refuses a player without it, and the first two parts of the version must match (any 1.2.x with any 1.2.x).
The host sets the rules. Every Server setting comes from the host or dedicated server, and a changed recipe reaches every player without a restart. The sounds and beeps are each player's own choice, and every player's game beeps for the lifts it sees.
Everyone sees the same lift. Where the deck is going and when it set off are saved with the lift, so every player's game moves it the same way, and it keeps its height through logouts and restarts. The game of the player nearest to it decides when it stops for something in the way and when it falls over; while someone drives it, their game moves it and everyone else's follows. A fallen lift lies the same way for everyone.

Compatibility

Riding uses the game's own physics: the deck is a moving body, as the leviathan players stand on is. No riding code is patched.
Driving uses the game's own way of steering, as a ship's helm does: while you hold the stick, your movement keys go to the lift.
The invisible ramps are on the game's own layer for invisible walls, so they don't catch the crosshair, hits or arrows.
A lift moved by a moving mod (such as ZenRedecorate) takes its deck along.
Pieces placed on the deck by building mods that ignore the game's rules stay where they were built; the deck stops when it reaches them.

Patches: Piece.CanBeRemoved (no hammer removal, and no rain wear, while someone stands on the deck).

Uninstalling

Lifts no longer load (the game logs them as missing) and their materials are lost: take them down with the hammer first to get the materials back. Oil in chests and inventories is gone too. Nothing else in the world is changed.

About

Made with Claude (Anthropic's AI model) and tagged AI Generated, as Thunderstore's rules ask. Built for Valheim 1.0.17 (Deep North; also 1.0.16) with BepInEx 5.4.2351 and Jotunn 2.30.2.

Found a bug or a clash with another mod, or have an idea? Tell us on GitHub. For a bug, attach your BepInEx/LogOutput.log from the game where it happened.