Greetings fellow Hearthlings, Mods, Devs (HA! I wish). When I started this lovely game, I was constanly searching for an escape from the wilderness to a village just accross the river. Luckily, I read the wiki on swimming, and promptly avoided it. However, there were no boats available to me. 4 Characters later, I find myself living in a village of roughly 10 people, and having to drag my boat all the way to the river just to go hunting. Bridges again come to mind. Hence, this thread.
So, I thought a skill called bridgebuilding could be added. But I had to ask myself, would bridges block boats, thus allowing someone with a claim around a bridge to basically control a river. Or maybe it reduces water and fish quality due to disturbing the nature ecosystem? I believe that would help carry out the vison of this game, but would result in griefers ruining village's fishing industries. Nevertheless, here is a summary of my thoughts.
Types of bridges:
Board Walkway: For people only, one-square width, decay's very quickly. When swimming is fixed, a chance to fall could be added due to lack of guardrails and balance diffcultlies.
Wooden Walkway: For people only, one square width. Handguards in place, good width, no more falling.
Wooden Bridge: 2 or 3 squares, basically a wooden walkway big enough to pull carts across.
Stone Bridge: A bridge that is very slow to decay.
Drawbridge: Stone-and-steel bridge that can either let boats through or block them.*
*Maybe all walkways block boats and all bridges, save the drawbridge, let the boats through?
To be continued in the second with Pros and Cons summarised.