New Block Type: Solid Rock

New Block Type

It has come to my attention that tunnelling is an ever growing problem in KAG. The problem is, changes to tower mining and building also affect tunnelling and mega-towers, respectively.

What we need is a way to slow down tunnellers but still allow some freedom to dig. Maps right now consist of invincible bedrock, dirt and valuable stone ore (and gold, I guess). What is needed is a block type that is mineable yet strong, and does not give out resources (or at least large amounts, if any).

I decided on 'Solid Rock'. This idea has much more potential than I originally guessed. With its' introduction, tunnel routes must be planned, key diggable areas can be set by map makers and the natural landscape can be incorporated into your fortress tower.

Marksdwarves archers can be set up in a cliff face that will resist attacks yet be cheap, placing emphasis on holding key points in the map. Flags can be placed in holes in cliff faces or have strong (but not invincible) foundations beneath them.

Learning the weak areas of the solid rock in different maps in order to mine gold sounds quite appealing. It also makes underground areas easier to defend as there will be less ways in. Mining straight through like a fool will waste so much time that the match will be over before the base is reached. Tunnelling will now be a valid risk-vs-reward strategy instead of a go-to for every match.

I know new things are a pain to add and balance, but I believe this is simple enough, both fixes many things and adds more tactical options, not random equipment/weapon fluff. It's basically just naturally generated stone blocks with some new sprites and maybe a few tweaks.

 

Hmmm, how about these possibilities:

• Hard Stone is generally resistant to mining (Drill-Resist; Many Damage Frames; Slows Mine Speed like dirt vs castle blocks in Alpha, etc)
• Hard Stone is very involved in blast mining (Max effect is comparable to Knight Bombs vs. Castle Block, or less.)
• Hard Stone only mineable by Builders (This point, and the one above also allow the added benefit of slower degenerating maps.)

Etc etc, I'm awfully tired of how fast the map, and structures are degenerated.

 

Yeah, explosives will erode a plateau or pit of this eventually, but the surface will still be mainly be dirt -to prevent bomb damage- with the lower levels containing more solid rock to stop builders. I want drills to still work on it, maybe less so than they do on castle blocks, but without water they won't get very far regardless.

Above ground, mountains or islands may use this, so I don't want it to be too strong in smaller amounts. The sheer underground mass that will be present (at least in some maps) will put off tunnellers though.

 

So...a tier 0.5 bedrock.

I'm all for it, if it is a layer before bedrock, but after a few layers of dirt and/or ore.

 

I like this idea.

 

Nice idea but I'm not sure Devs are looking to add more blocks