Baffled a bit. So we can make Metal walls out of Stone...?

[Ramsis]

Sorry just reading up on the changelog as I do every so often throughout my day and I'm a tad bit baffled. So if I went to make a wall out of what would initially be a metal wall, then I opted to have it built with stone, what exactly would I be looking at? What properties could I expect this odd yet beautiful wall to have? Also from that understanding what would a silver wall be and what perks would that have?

[EscapeZeppelin]

Why would you make a metal wall out of stone? You decide to make a wall and then choose the material it's made out of. The properties will be decided by the material used. I suspect a silver wall would have no perks other than "hey look at my silver wall, I'm so fancy". Seeing as it's made of silver I expect it will have terrible resistance to damage.

[Shinzy]

Aye! you're likely just going to have one generic 'wall' option to build with and then choose what to build it of like Zeppelin says there!

[Tynan]

The building is 'wall'. You choose what you want to build it out of. If it's metal, it becomes "metal wall" and gets all the stat modifiers for being metal. Same with stone and silver. And yeah, silver isn't really awesome (though I honestly don't know much about the strength properties of silver), but it's very pretty!

[milon]

(though I honestly don't know much about the strength properties of silver)

http://www.webelements.com/silver/physics.html
Reflectivity: 97% (Shiny!!)
Electrical Resistivity: 1.63  10^-8  (Lower resistivity than Iron, Gold, Aluminum, etc >> Really Good Conductor?)
Hardness seems to be fairly low, compared to other metals like Iron.

[Shinzy]

(though I honestly don't know much about the strength properties of silver)

http://www.webelements.com/silver/physics.html
Reflectivity: 97% (Shiny!!)
Electrical Resistivity: 1.63  10^-8  (Lower resistivity than Iron, Gold, Aluminum, etc >> Really Good Conductor?)
Hardness seems to be fairly low, compared to other metals like Iron.

Don't forget 1d6 +2 vs. Lycanthropes!
and 0 reflectivity on Tacos

[SSS]

Silver conducts electricity better than any other element. We use copper more because it's cheaper. Amongst metals, silver conducts heat better than any other, and it's also the most reflective (of metals).

Maybe you could make a benefit for building power lines out of silver?

[Shinzy]

Silver conducts electricity better than any other element. We use copper more because it's cheaper. Amongst metals, silver conducts heat better than any other, and it's also the most reflective (of metals).

Maybe you could make a benefit for building power lines out of silver?

What kind of benefits? like less power loss per square? the way minecraft does with some of the mods
That'd be really neat actually, you'd really have to think on your base layout
No hunkering down inside a mountain without silver lining!

[ThatOtherGuy]

"Door and powered door can now be made out of arbitrary stuffs. - Walls can now be made of arbitrary stuffs."

IT HAS COME TRUE! BEHOLD MY CASTLE OF SQUIRREL MEAT!

Also check out those powered raspberry doors. Neato, eh?

[stefanstr]

One worry I have is the powered walls. Will all walls be powered now? Will we have to add metal to create powered walls? Will we have to use power conduits for everything?

The first option is bad - I like to use stone walls sometimes specifically to limit power to some areas of the base. Also, this would make metal much less useful. The second option might create unnecessary complexity. The third option would make logistics cumbersome with all the cables on the floor.

Another worry I have is realism. Precious metals are really sparse in the universe. It would disrupt immersion for me if I was to find a motherlode of silver/gold in every game. I think these should be very rare and only once every X games should you hit upon „Potosi", if ever.

[Rahjital]

There could simply be a "can transmit power" ability of materials. Walls built out of metal or wood could transmit power while log or stone walls wouldn't.

It doesn't seem like you'll be able to mine silver anytime soon. It's pretty much money, so if you want to be able to build a palace out of it, you'll have to get rich by trading first, which is entirely reasonable. After all, there are men whowear shirts woven out of gold.

[ThatOtherGuy]

Why do we need walls that transmit power? IRL the power is transmitted by wires running through the wall, not the wall itself. The sensible solution might just be to give us the ability to lay power conduits through the walls. That would sound like a more consistent system to me.

[RawCode]

First thing i will build with new system is walls made from human meat... (some creepy references about aliens who use human bodies as building material)
To be precise - pirate meat (or tribal meat) (or random visitors)
Probably floors also will be made from meat.

Second thing is furniture from human bones (or just meat, since there is no bones yet in vanilla).

Third thing - i will dress my colonist in human leather dusters, probably black ones if possible.

Colony will be named "Kingdom of leave hope behind doorstep please".

Power conduit system at this moment looks like very big and very ugly placeholder, especially with walls that do not conduit power.
In most cases wires placed below floor or over ceiling, they never placed over floor.
Wires should build in manner similar to floors, this will allow to remove any conductivity from walls and objects and provide full power and full control to player.

[stefanstr]

Tynan decided to respond with the changelog instead of a post: "Added power conduit wall. You can build any wall with a power conduit inside."

[Tynan]

I'm here... lurking... breathing... touching... the keyboard... to write code to implement good ideas from the forums...