Fortress Walls & Trench Warfare

[Wolfe_Garm]

Hello All,

I'm still fairly new to this Community but I've had a idea on my mind for a while and until recently i had no idea there was siege warfare which sorta validated a reason for me to suggest this.

in all honesty i've been looking over the pros and cons of this and i'm not entirely sure it is plausible but i figured hey this is the suggestion board why not suggest it and see what the community thinks of it and see if it would be plausible in the first place.

so i have this interesting idea for both early game defenses and late game defenses. currently the only defensive walls we have are sandbags... well that isn't much of a defensive barrier between your colonist and the person shooting at them.

there are two elements i think would be not only cool to see but also would bring in an element of a proper defensive fortification.


the first idea is Trench Warfare, back in World War 1 Trench warfare provided two things a place to keep your head down when the enemy was shelling your position and a place where you could fire from should the enemy attack your lines. this was both bloody and vital for both the Axis and Allied forces, and was no longer used after the first tank came into play.

but since tanks aren't a problem here (at least i hope) trenches could have a place in this game.

Pros

• early game defense
• very cheap to produce (primarily should only need a little bit of wood in order to keep the trench walls from collapsing)
• place to run to if you had to fight raiders out in the open

Cons

• While this could be considered a Pro it is also a Con because while it would incur a heavy cover bonus due to being in the ground that would also mean that if the raiders were to get their hands on any one section of your Trenches it is going to take a lot to uproot them due to the defensive bonus it offers


• while this wouldn't mean much it would take sometime to build those trench fortifications due to having to dig and build trench walls.

the second idea i have is fortress walls, a stronger wall that can be manned by people, which would allow for your colonist to shoot out on raiders from a place of safety. They would still be exposed to return fire but the walls would allow for them to have some chance of surviving a raid of forty+ raiders. Mind you these walls will need stairs to reach the top of the wall but is easily handled.

Pros

• late game defense
• Due to the nature it would give a heavy cover bonus to those on top of the wall
  
• would have a 2x2 wall segment that would allow for colonist to walk on them and if the need came shoot from the top of the walls.
• due to the size of the walls they would be much stronger to withstand multiple hits from explosives before being destroyed

Cons
while there is plenty of benefits from having such walls i've narrowed the list of cons down to some of the more relevant cons.

• while the walls would provide the best defense if the wall was to be destroyed and there were people on the section that was destroyed they would be hurt severely or even killed due to standing on walls. (if anyone has seen Lord of the Rings The Two Towers and remembers the siege of Helms deep then you'll know where i'm going with this one.)
• the cost to build in your chosen material would be very high (wood, metal, or Stone)

these are just a few points i wanted to point out, i can see the advantage and disadvantage of having either fortification, but the biggest thing is, is it plausible? and better yet doable.

[BetaSpectre]

I would assume trnches would just give sandbag defense bonuses and reduce speed

[Wolfe_Garm]

yes and no.

the reduced speed is a possibility, but not necessarily something that would be there the sole purpose of a trench is to defend you from those shooting, sandbags are a obstacle that can be easily destroyed while trenches would take some time to be destroyed (more so with explosives than with small arms fire) and actually it wouldn't really incur the same bonus because sandbags are out in the open and can be shot at while trenches aren't they are dug into the ground which makes you a smaller target to hit.