Wooden Walls

[Taikei no Yuurei]

So, I really haven't played much yet, but I saw a let's play of RimWorld and decided I really needed to give it another go.  In the video it was mentioned that wooden walls were a new thing and they worked well in the video, but I don't seem to have access to them or anything.  AFAIK I have the latest version 0.7.584 which states up to date in the top left of the main menu.

Do I need to research something or build something first to be able to make wooden walls?  Wasn't that way in the video, but maybe it changed as the video was a few months old, though wiki seems to indicate that I don't need to do anything special.

[bullwinkle]

If I'm not mistaken, you have to right click the "conduit wall" in architect  to bring up which building material you'd like to use (ie. Wood)

[Taikei no Yuurei]

Well, isn't that clever and streamlined and whatnot.  A bit not explained but oh well.  Now I just have to resist the desire to make my buildings out of precious metals and I'll be fine.... okay, maybe just one silver building.

Thanks for the help.

[Goo Poni]

Something else to note is that unless the "stuff" material is actually on your stockpiles, you can't build with it. If you want to build out of marble, you need to have at least one block of marble at your disposal which would let you build freely. Once someone picks up said block and fails to build with it because you need more than one block, you cannot build with marble at all until more blocks find their way to your stockpiles. Can get a little irritating if you build a bunch of bedrooms for everyone and quickly want to lay down some metal beds but can't because everyone's using the freshly mined metal from the mountainside and none of it is on a stockpile, thus you have no metal available.

[Taikei no Yuurei]

Good to know.  Also realized that I just have to left click and it automatically comes up with the material selection.  That's nice to counter not knowing about it (problem would have sorted itself) but it does seem to be a bit annoying as it is an extra click to just put down wooden walls when I already have it set to wooden walls.

And maybe not the best place to ask, but is there a reason to use the powered walls instead of just putting down power conduits?  Power conduits only cost 1 metal per square, but powered walls cost 2 metal extra.

[Goo Poni]

Besides the bonus of having the conduits inlaid with your walls and not having tiles blocked for building because conduits are in the walls, there isn't one. My colony's workshop would look incredibly messy, plus I don't like the aesthetic thought of this big bundle of power cables trailing through the hallways. Conduit walls are weaker than standard walls, so any defensive building or anywhere that's regularly taking damage should probably be built out of the regular walls instead. Granite is one of the sturdiest things you can build out of, with a larger health multiplier than even plasteel.

[Cimanyd]

You don't need it on a stockpile for the option to show up, just somewhere. (but if all the metal on the map was used up, it wouldn't show)

In Alpha 8 the material selection thing is supposed to be improved, don't know how though. The extra click each time is definitely annoying...

Conduit walls and normal walls have the same health.

There aren't granite or marble buildings in the game yet (without mods), but they'll be in A8.

[Goo Poni]

Ah, then those are through mods I'm playing with. I didn't think something like stones would be expanded upon by mods.

[Endoric]

The building materials just needs to be present on the map, not in use by a pawn (being taken to a structure or stockpile for example) and not set to forbidden.  Then you can build using that option, even beyond the available amount.

I would like you to be able to plan a build with the material no matter what the availability though.

[ccheuer]

Something else to note is that unless the "stuff" material is actually on your stockpiles, you can't build with it. If you want to build out of marble, you need to have at least one block of marble at your disposal which would let you build freely. Once someone picks up said block and fails to build with it because you need more than one block, you cannot build with marble at all until more blocks find their way to your stockpiles. Can get a little irritating if you build a bunch of bedrooms for everyone and quickly want to lay down some metal beds but can't because everyone's using the freshly mined metal from the mountainside and none of it is on a stockpile, thus you have no metal available.

Odd, I've noted that so long as the material is on the ground, it will list it in the types of walls you can make, but it will still say you don't have enough of it, even if you do.

[Goo Poni]

It might just be because of stone materials requiring a manufacturing step beforehand so if I have pending constructions needing stony stuff, colonists will produce it and take it straight to constructions in progress. I don't get to see it touch the stockpile so it looks like if I don't have it on a stockpile, I can't use it at all. It's a common occurrence in TTM because even plain metal objects require metal be made into utility metal and that utility metal is used in metallic constructions.

[ccheuer]

It might just be because of stone materials requiring a manufacturing step beforehand so if I have pending constructions needing stony stuff, colonists will produce it and take it straight to constructions in progress. I don't get to see it touch the stockpile so it looks like if I don't have it on a stockpile, I can't use it at all. It's a common occurrence in TTM because even plain metal objects require metal be made into utility metal and that utility metal is used in metallic constructions.

What I meant was that when you have stone blocks (already made) just lying on the map, even though they aren't in a storage zone, you can still build with them. The option is there, but it doesn't keep track of how many are on the ground, therefore it will say you need more, even though they are already building the wall.

[Cheet4h]

In Alpha 8 the material selection thing is supposed to be improved, don't know how though. The extra click each time is definitely annoying...

Currently the EdBInterface mod solves this: It adds an option to only show the selection list when rightclicking, while leftclicking selects the currently shown material.

[StorymasterQ]

It might just be because of stone materials requiring a manufacturing step beforehand so if I have pending constructions needing stony stuff, colonists will produce it and take it straight to constructions in progress. I don't get to see it touch the stockpile so it looks like if I don't have it on a stockpile, I can't use it at all. It's a common occurrence in TTM because even plain metal objects require metal be made into utility metal and that utility metal is used in metallic constructions.

What I meant was that when you have stone blocks (already made) just lying on the map, even though they aren't in a storage zone, you can still build with them. The option is there, but it doesn't keep track of how many are on the ground, therefore it will say you need more, even though they are already building the wall.

If the system is made like you said, what's to prevent these stupid colonists to go and get a stone block from all the way across the map just to build this wall?

Maybe if by 'ground' you mean 'home zone', that could work.

[Goo Poni]

As pretty much everything except the starting resources are forbidden by default, the colony god (you, the player) would have had to have given them permission to go collect those blocks from the other side of the map.