Salem

is there an easy way to level the amount of ground needed for a building or do i have to eyeball how level everything is?

It depends on what client you are using. With both Enders and Latikai's, pressing CTRL + L will open a leveling tool. Clicking and dragging your mouse on the ground will show how level it is.

I'm just using the basic client at the moment, i had problems even opening enders

Ahh.

You could try a wipe of Saleme (delete .salem and Salem folders), or a reinstall of Java. Are you using the newest version of Java 7? I think its required now.

yes, i'm on java 7, so i'll give wiping salem a try in the morning

Digging on the custom client is next to impossible.

Pick a tile, select dig and ctrl click that tile, it should become reasonably flat soonish. Use this tile as your point of reference. Next pick an adjacent tile where all corners seem higher than your reference tile and ctrl click dig it as well. When you can;t carry any more dirt, find some lower areas you need to build up to flatten your area and ctrl right click those tiles until you are no longer carrying any dirt.

Alternately, if no ares need to be raised, dump the dirt somewhere out of the way where you won't have to dig it again, or log out of your character and back in while holding the dirt. It will disappear.

^ this works, thank you jalpha!