Smoothing Stone Walls

JonoRig · December 15, 2014, 07:49:22 AM

I'm sorry if this has been suggested somewhere, but visually something bugs me

Now, i like the Textures of the freshly mined wall; it does look like its meant to be natural; however, when i am building my base in or around mountains, there are times i don't want to build a wall on every face, and the wobbly texture starts to annoy me. We already have smooth stone floors, so why not add in the options to smooth out rock walls. Maybe it only minimally reduces ugly environment mood penalty, or not at all, but i would just like the option for my own personal aesthetics haha.

Shinzy · December 15, 2014, 08:45:11 AM

Thoorrriiinnn Smooothenstooone!

(Don't ask! I'm excited! I want smooth stone walls, too)

Veyda · April 21, 2015, 06:31:37 PM

I second this.
Since Beauty is kind of important now and rough stone walls give a -1 penalty, an option to smooth them just like the floors would be very appreciated.

Silvador · April 21, 2015, 08:43:44 PM

Not even going to read OP's post. I read the title and that's all I needed to read to be on board with this. Smooth stone walls +1!

Renham · April 22, 2015, 01:17:22 AM

add both things... stone wall smoothing, and stone wall carving, also for the floor.
as in dorf fortress you can carve decorations in the walls it takes a lot longer but the resoults are amazing, would be made by an artist, the same for the floor.

rexx1888 · April 22, 2015, 03:09:53 AM

^^ thats a really rad idea.

also of note, there was a mod for this in alpha 9, though carving wasnt part of it but thats a really cool idea...

Kegereneku · April 22, 2015, 09:17:05 AM

+1

Matthiasagreen · April 22, 2015, 09:24:57 AM

Her is the mod that did this in Alpha 9, though it generally got unnoticed. Maybe someone who is better at modding could run with it. The original poster only ever posted that one thing.

https://ludeon.com/forums/index.php?topic=12185

Veyda · April 22, 2015, 11:44:38 PM

Quote from: Renham on April 22, 2015, 01:17:22 AM
add both things... stone wall smoothing, and stone wall carving, also for the floor.
as in dorf fortress you can carve decorations in the walls it takes a lot longer but the resoults are amazing, would be made by an artist, the same for the floor.

This is exactly what I was trying to avoid.

I understand that Rimworld is somewhat inspired by DF, however, warp- (or, at least, space-) age humans are not fantasy dwarves. Carving art and poems into walls and floors - in essence, the dwarf equivalent of cave painting - may seem appropriate and worthwhile in that culture, yet the functional significance of it is rather dubious and, given that citizens of a space-faring culture are more likely to put value in functionality, science and getting back into space, it seems quite unnecessary and inefficient. If anything, humans (if they are planning to stay for a long, long time) would smooth the walls and then hang up paintings and other decorations (that they are able to remove and take with them onto a ship later) to bring value and beauty up. Carving art into walls is permanent and implies the desire to stay - not just on that planet, but in that cave.. The desire to make and preserve history - hence the 'Fortress' in DF.

I personally am for smoothing, but against carving.

However, this is a design decision mostly based on vision and the only one who can know for sure whether this is worth implementing in the long run or not is, probably, Tynan.

EDIT: There is (at least) one technicality to consider here: are the stone walls (rough stone squares) currently treated as one monolithic block or do they have four sides? If they are treated as one block, do we close our eyes on the fact that smoothing one side smooths them all, or is (potentially expensive) refactoring necessary to add sides to all squares and handle them separately?

rexx1888 · April 23, 2015, 02:25:33 AM

im pretty sure rock walls are cell divided. if not, then alot of effort was put into making them not, and it was probably a waste of said effort.

as to carvings an painting, i want all the things. You should consider the fact that while your stories are about humans that want to get back into space, not everyone elses will be. More options is always good in this kind of game.

Veyda · April 23, 2015, 04:43:59 AM

Quote from: rexx1888 on April 23, 2015, 02:25:33 AM
as to carvings an painting, i want all the things. You should consider the fact that while your stories are about humans that want to get back into space, not everyone elses will be. More options is always good in this kind of game.

Yes, but how much dev time are we (they? him?) willing to put in to achieve a true sandbox, where possibilities for a colony are near-limitless? Are we going for replicating the minimum of features already existing in a similar game?.. Or is it something different conceptually? Like I said, it's kind of a vision / design question. I'm slightly new to the process, so I'd like to understand. My original suggestion still stands, though.

Kegereneku · April 23, 2015, 06:23:36 AM

My support for this, come that I'm hoping Rimworld to have different ending hook, one of them being related to "beauty".

Furthermore, since Rimworld already take beauty into account and a 'smoothened stone wall' isn't a gamebreaking addition (at least at first sight), I think it will make for good content in Rimworld for when Tynan get the time.

TonyKuremento · May 01, 2015, 08:29:32 PM

I fully support the idea of smoothing or texturing.
By texturing I mean like a pattern, be it wavy or lines or something else.
However, I agree to not have carving in the sense of pictures and stories, that is DF's domain. Plus you have to figure in it seems a bit weird to carve in your story when you are just going to leave the planet anyway, where as in DF you are making a mountainhome and assuming you don't "win" DF, the carvings last generations to tell the story to kids, grandkids, etc!

TLHeart · May 02, 2015, 07:43:18 AM

oh but humans have carved into rocks, to tell a story, or leave a message, with no intent on staying. There are numerous such sights along the oregon trail, from the 1800 in the US. Humans have always left a mark of where they have been, and sometimes where they are going.

So, as someone who has never played dwarf fortress, it is not DF domain, but a very logical outgrowth of an artist wanting to leave a message behind.

TonyKuremento · May 02, 2015, 06:06:31 PM

Quote from: TLHeart on May 02, 2015, 07:43:18 AM
oh but humans have carved into rocks, to tell a story, or leave a message, with no intent on staying. There are numerous such sights along the oregon trail, from the 1800 in the US. Humans have always left a mark of where they have been, and sometimes where they are going.

So, as someone who has never played dwarf fortress, it is not DF domain, but a very logical outgrowth of an artist wanting to leave a message behind.

Yes but aren't we in some kind of super future? How do we know such things have not fallen out of a social etiquette by then, hmmmmm? I am just saying I want the rock walls to look better if they are mine and I use them as walls. I just think the stories thing is too far into what DF does because each world would need a plethora of event tracking upon the creation of said world.