Architecture

[Krantarin]

I've been thinking about setting up new towns and the thought occurred to me (as I'm sure it has to many of you) How would we make a city hall? Or a temple? Or an Armory?

Many, many things can be done with the simple cabin, depending of course on furnishings, etc. What I now want to do with the game is something more. I'd like an addition that allows you to build with limited restrictions. The ability to place a wall where you want, or add a room onto the main one. I know it may be difficult, and as a non-programmer, it may be a very silly, impossible-to-implement (or just ridiculously difficult) suggestion. The thing is, this would be undeniably awesome. Can you imagine the cities that would be made from stone and wood? Castles and labyrinths?

I hope someone tells me how practical it would be to implement such a thing. Thanks, Jorb and/or Loftar!

[loftar]

Arbitrary architecture was our original thought in implementing building, but the more we thought about it, the more we realized how difficult it would be to actually implement it well. For a good implementation, it would be required to check the integrity of buildings and rooms (and even trying to define what would actually constitute such integrity is hard enough) and handle weird edge cases like what happens when you raze a single wall, or where to require inner supports and what happens when they are razed and so on.

Fences and city walls and the like are another thing, though. We plan on adding such things sooner or later. For houses, however, I hope you'll be able to do with our plans of adding more kinds of buildings in due time (including multilevel buildings and the like).

[Krantarin]

It's good to hear there'll be variety in buildings eventually. I sort-of guessed that there would be something wrong with in-game design. Thanks for responding so quickly. I really look forward to the multilevel buildings... and castles... a sudden craving for castles just struck me... castles... and keeps... and moats... and towers... and portcullises and arrow slits... Oh, and did I mention we'll need horses to go along with our shining armor?

Sorry, off my own topic.

[Yolan]

After spending several hours extending my wall of baskets around ShadyAcre, I gotta say, I could care two figs about if we get new building options next month, or some time next year. What I would give my right arm for would be some simple fences and gates. As I think this would also be the easiest for you to implement, I would argue that this needs to be a major priority, up there with destructable objects, and reducing hunger.

Anybody agree with me on this?

[StarChaser]

Shift+click makes building a little easier. You are still clicking... But at least it is half as much.

[Krantarin]

Weirdly, despite my interest in new designs, I think there are other things that do matter more and should be higher priorities such as a friend-foe, kin ID system or shared property claims.

[theTrav]

My number 1 wish list item is currently locks and keys.

Then goes:
2 - Slower hunger
3 - Fences & Gates
4 - Dynamic forest tiles
5 - Domesticating sheep/cows
6 - Dynamic creature level (based on population/construction densities or communal bonfires/village centers)
7 - Ability to dig your own mines
8 - Destruction of built structures and items
9 - Archery Nerf
10 - Map reset
11 - Better UI for repetitive tasks (havesting, repeated crafting, sowing seeds etc)

[Jfloyd]

7 - Ability to dig your own mines

Would this be done with a dowsing rod? Say you'd have to look for a vein of iron?

[loftar]

My current idea (though it's definitely open for revision) is to search for ore veins by "doing a geological survey of a point", by which you would find out concentrations of ore in a particular location. In order to actually find a good place to dig a mine, you'd have to look for the direction in which the ore concentration increases and thus find your way to the actual ore vein. (No, indeed, it's not supposed to be trivial to find a mine ;) )

I like the basic idea, but I do get the feeling that something more exciting could be done. I'm not quite sure yet.

[Peter]

Note that rapid changes in elevation tend to expose hidden veins... perhaps searching cliff sides would allow you to locate veins or seams that are good to dig into.

Would it be possible to have multiple doors into a mine? If so, then couldn't players dig tunnels of sorts? Hmm... go under, dig west until you're under mordor, then dig up and settle there!