Well I really don’t know too much about engineering but from a kind of common sense view, these aquewalls would surely be weak? Not in the sense of the structure, as it would obviously have to be very strong to hold tons of water, but in the sense that if one bit came down, the rest would too, whereas walls can be built so that you take one bit down and you only have a small hole that they can now come through.
And also, as @Robinson3938 said, it would actually be quite likely to flood your own people and maybe not affect the enemy at all.
One solution would be to have separate bulkheads of water storage, so the destruction of one segment of wall wouldn’t cause a chain reaction in the entire system. This would also allow the system to be used multiple times, as the water wouldn’t simply run out the one hole.
Now, if the walls were built on sloped hills, leading to a hilltop/plateau where your town was, there’d be less concern about internal flooding due to less total surface area and gravity encouraging the water out of the town, rather than in. The downside is that the buildings would subsequently be higher up, making siege weapons possibly more effective at hitting their targets. The walls would have to be pretty comparatively tall.
Because everyone is talking about auqa walls, I wana talk about MAGMA WALLS.
Basicaly, your walls are filled with the hot liquid from the deep, any attempt ap penetration, results in a leak, on the side facing inwards, you put a moat, this moat has bridges to the wall and lava leaking out would flow into.
i mean, if we’re talking about fluid dynamics and maximum protection… nothing says “keep out!” like a wall… filled with fricking laser beams hot magma!
From what I know about lava/molten earth, it has a higher viscosity than water (it flows outward at a slower rate), but it would certainly have MUCH longer lasting after-effects than just water on the ground.
Considering the real-world material, though, it would require a tremendous amount of energy to keep the magma in a liquid state travelling far out from the source; think of it like an electrical fence on steroids. Many, many steroids.
If the magma would cool on the other hand, you’d be left with solid igneous rock, which would be considerably more durable than most manufactured walls. The biggest downside I can see is the cost to maintain and repair the system should it get damaged in combat–it IS magma, after all, that your people would be working around.
Actually, no. My biggest concern would be the fact that your town needs to be built right next to an active volcanic fault line. Other than that, you’re golden.
Does anyone have any plans on how to combat an enemy that walls won’t even slow down (Spiders, intangible beings, wall disintegrating titans). Because if a wall won’t stop it you need to have a certain formation/battle strategy, any ideas?
Edit: I’m talking anything from monsters that go after the last one who hit it to things that don’t change objectives till they stop moving or the deed is done.
There’s always the possibility that you could use explosives around your base at choke points and create massive pitfalls.
This would probably be way later in the game, once you’re comfortable with your settlers and you’ve mined enough to create massive caverns underground surrounding your base. Rig one so there’s only a little bit of ground over the chamber, then blast it to kill smaller units (hopefully, either the explosion or the fall will kill them). Maybe this could at least buy time if face with larger, heavier units or Titans.
Just make sure they can’t climb up into your base from the caverns! Make them wander around a bit while your archers take a few free shots on them. Remember, this only works once unless you can reset the system, possibly by using a geomancer’s anticipated terrain-altering skills. Otherwise, you’ll probably need a bridge to get over the new canyons resulting, which you can subsequently blow up as well if the going gets really tough.
As for intangible beings (I’m supposing ghosts or common Gothic enemies, like vampires or werecreatures), there’s got to be some way to fight them in game, like a weakness to magic or certain weapons. Get these weapons close to the enemy via flanking, decoys, and possibly tunnels to get around the field. If Stonehearth’s meant to be primarily a single-city builder, I’m expecting all sorts of devious traps and mechanisms like these to use in your game on your home terrain.
Personally I think that the idea of using geomancers to crush enemies is overrated. My defence strategies will be to use them to erect huge walls around the enemies… besiege the besieger.
Also get the magma smith to pour lava into the surrounded enemy camp and turn it into a giant cooking pot.
Here’s something I just recently considered, in regards to medieval warfare. What about tunnelers and sappers?
Back in the days of fortresses and castles, sometimes the defense was just too much to deal with; you couldn’t even get siege weapons or troops close to the structure. Short of a legion of trebuchets or early cannons, you’re not breaking that wall. So some armies would dig tunnels under structures to collapse them, sometimes blowing the tunnels up.
Would this work in Stonehearth, do you think? Considering digging will likely be much easier than real life, it makes me wonder how effective walls will be, as it’s likely there will be enemies that can change terrain at some point. If you build your walls flush with the ground, they just need to dig/move a few blocks to go right under it. What solutions can you guys come up with, either with our current knowledge or possible suggestions for vanilla content?
Don’t forget burrowing enemies, it’s quite clear that at some point there will be burrowing enemies (e.g. giant armoured worm) at the very least through mods. A wall in it’s normal method won’t work there, you’d need it built far underground as well which would be mostly impractical.
As for the magma issue, you’d still need to be reasonably close to a volcano or have one hefty stong magma smith and some flexible rulesets. Although there is the fact that actually building the wall would be damn near impossible it would at least fix the burrowing issue if you filled a deep moat with it. Doesn’t stop flyers though.
