Stone Walls [Rammed-Earth Walls]

[Robi]

I did a quick search and didn't find it as a suggestion but here goes:
Stone walls would be a kind-of in between for Palisades and Brick Walls. The point in adding them would be so that players who join late in the world (when EVERY clay node is claimed or drained) will have the chance to build a wall that couldn't be bashed as easily as a palisade. The wall wouldn't be as strong as a brick wall but would be strong enough to help deter any attackers without use of a ram. To create the walls they would use stones, wood blocks, and mud (another suggestion.) You can create mud by mixing soil with a bucket of water.

Ideas for construction:

Cornerposts require 4 blocks of wood, 30 stones, and 10 mud.
Wall segments require 1 block of wood, 5 stones, 3 mud.
Gates require 8 blocks of wood, 10 boards, 30 stones, 20 mud.

Graphical ideas:

Cornerpost would be a tall stacked stone wall, with 4 palisade spikes (mostly for aesthetics)
Wall segments would be a stacked stone wall with one palisade spike (aesthetic)
The gate would be 2 cornerposts with a wooden gate in between similar to the existing roundpole gate but taller.

I'm no good at graphic designing or I would make an example, the wall would be very time consuming (due to the amount of different materials) so brick walls would still be preferred, but it would provide a safe alternative for anyone who does not have access to clay.

What do you guys think?
Leave suggestions and comments, any good suggestions I'll add into the main post.

EDIT:

you mean like a rammed earth wall?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rammed_earth

I love this, that could even be the name (rammed-earth wall, house, etc) and could also include another set of buildings/structures.

[Saxony4]

Why would it need mud? Good idea but I just don't see why it would require mud/soil

[Robi]

Well I was trying make it more realistic by basing it off of history, back in time they would use mud as a type of mortar. Other than that it would make it more time consuming so they people couldn't just spam the walls around their base without spending alot of time.

[Saxony4]

you mean like a rammed earth wall?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rammed_earth

I see what you're saying now. Don't think anything would be implemented anytime soon though even if jorb/loftar took a look at it. It's a pretty good idea though. Palisades are already easy enough to set up anyhow.

[Robi]

I like that alot, I put it in the top post. I understand they probably won't implement it for a while (if they do.) In all honesty I wish I could go to school for programming and join the developers on this game I'm a huge fan of it.

[ApocalypsePlease]

I'm opposed to this, mostly to what purpose it's solving and how it conflicts with the current game.

Firstly, not all clay nodes are claimed, they really aren't. The better clay nodes may mostly be claimed, but there are still sufficient numbers left unclaimed you have access to.
Secondly, this seems like a really, REALLY cheap wall between palisades and brickwalls, which could really just bypass people building palisades because they'd be useless. All of the resources for this could be collected within the first hour of playing, which can't be said for palisades (leather, bone glue, rope). This is too cheap, it really is.
Thirdly, I can't tell if you're saying this requires a ram to be bashed, if so it's broken for the cheap effectiveness of it. If it is bashable by hand, then this won't give you barely any edge over a palisade (which it shouldn't anyways since it's easier to build).

This is imbalanced.

This has also been suggested before but whatever it was suggested in a different manner.

PS: Just find a clay node, they are still out there.

[Robi]

I do agree that it is a bit cheap, a group of players could easily throw one up within the first couple days. Do you have any suggestions to make it more expensive/worthwhile? Maybe it needs a certain technology to build? As for the bashing part, yes it could be bashed by hand, as can brick walls with high enough stats (or so I've seen from screenshots, I could be wrong) however it would require much more effort on the attackers part. As far as how to make it more expensive I will try to brainstorm some ideas.

[ApocalypsePlease]

I do agree that it is a bit cheap, a group of players could easily throw one up within the first couple days. Do you have any suggestions to make it more expensive/worthwhile? Maybe it needs a certain technology to build? As for the bashing part, yes it could be bashed by hand, as can brick walls with high enough stats (or so I've seen from screenshots, I could be wrong) however it would require much more effort on the attackers part. As far as how to make it more expensive I will try to brainstorm some ideas.

The current walls have 1 generic material (blocks of wood and bricks) which is required in mass, and small amounts of "expensive" materials (leather/bone glue/rope and wrought iron/steel). These materials are also related to the effectiveness of the wall (bricks are less accessible than blocks of wood ergo more effective). Looking on that scale, stones are even more accessible than blocks of wood so the equivalent wall for them would probably be less effective than palisades. You need to find some mass obtainable material between blocks of wood and bricks, as well as one or a few more expensive material(s) thrown in.

As for a technology to build such a wall, that would be good as well. Not too expensive in itself but requiring more higher end skills needed to gain access to it perhaps.

And about brickwalls being hand bashable, they used to be able to but that was changed at the start of W4 if memory is serving me correctly. Right now they need a battering ram to be destroyed.

[Robi]

Thanks for the feedback, as for a material in between blocks of wood and bricks, what about stone blocks? It would enhance the stone working skill and would also require yeomanry and masonry. To collect them you could "break up" a whole rock and it could drop anywhere from 20-50 stone blocks. That would make it much more difficult to build especially on a large scale, meaning it might need an increase in strength. That's an option.

Or maybe stone bricks could be made using mud, stone, and placing it in a kiln? Requiring the same skills as above, it would make it a more tedious process but still obtainable. If this would be a better option the strength would be decreased, but the alternative to that is to make a 50/50 chance of the stone brick shattering in the kiln (due to heat) resulting in the loss of mud but half the stone input returned.

What do you think?

[MagicManICT]

I say you go play Salem for a bit when it goes open beta. Devs have abandoned further development on this game until then, and what you're suggesting may already be planned, but it might not be as good as a palisade.