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[Servu]

So this is more for the aboveground/human forts after invaders have been taught how to use tunneling.

Basically what I am proposing here is enabling the use of soil as a very cheap (infinite supply), yet inefficient and even dangerous building material for large buildings.

Building with soil would require three things: A shovel, a wheelbarrow or other type cart and time. To begin construction one would firstly designate an area for collection (just like sand.) After this is done you can [d]esignate an empty tile to be made into either a soil ramp (one wheelbarrow load) or a wall (two loads). Then a dwarf with the appropriate labor enabled (dirt hauling?) will grab the necessary tools, head to the collection area to fill up his wheelbarrow and then dump it's load to the marked area.

Now while this method one could easily create large structures out of nothing - if it hadn't some major disadvantages. Firstly any invaders who have access to shovels could dig through any constructions made this way with ease, secondly the buildings have absolutely no architectual value, so while useful for accomodating common peasants or supplies whey wouldn't really be the winner's choise for a large fort.

The third, and as far as I am concerned, most Fun liability is moist. Specifically when a tile of dirt gets wet enough (and has at least one free tile without a ramp next to it), it has a chance to turn into 4/7 mud (more viscosic, un-drinkable and un-swimmable water that dries faster) and a ramp. Floor tiles over rooms could turn into 1/7 mud and unsupported ramps into 3/7 mud. To make the construction structurally secure a wall out of other materials would need to be added to the sides.

Most importantly, rain could also turn soil into mud when given enough time, slowly turning hastily built settlements into pools and hillside establishments into mudslides. This could pose a serious threat to some underground forts too if their entrances are dug too steeply into insecure land.

So this would restrict soil construction to very dry or cold biomes (africa-style dirt huts, anyone?) and to small mounds and temporary barricades elsewhere.

Lastly, shrubs and especially trees could keep the soil together during even a heavy rainfall, so slides would probably not happen instantly after embarking to a site, since the earth has enough roots and other material in it to keep it solid. However, when the inevitable deforestation occurs any steep hills would start to liquidify, flooding the below areas and contaminating the water there.

[Warlord255]

Mudslides would be pretty awesome. Mud buildings would also be good for Kobolds and perhaps Animalmen or sentient questbeast settlements, in lieu of caves.

[Shurhaian]

I wouldn't want this to happen until there's a way to roof things over without building onto the roof, really. Especially nice would be if you could make a thatch roof - the thatcher might find some undisturbed grass, denude that tile of grass and turn it into bare soil, and with that much material could cover n squares of roof. Thatch roofs aren't perfect, but they actually deal pretty well with water. If you want better protection, being able to make a roof out of other materials - like a constructed bridge, only it's not suitable for walking on and is built from below - would be welcome.

Now, rain does not only fall vertically and then fail to spread, so dirt buildings would still be worn down by water over time - but if they're roofed over, it might give enough time to patch them. Which is something the local builders would do on their own; the wall would have a wear modifier, and if it passes below threshold for any reason(either water or something hitting it enough), it collapses - but if someone comes and repairs it before that happens, it's restored to its normal strength.

Wear during rain is somewhat random, but the walls shouldn't crumble without some chance to shore them up. In torrential rain and with a small building crew, there might not be enough time - but there'd be a chance to try.

[Grendus]

Actually... I like it. Though it has kinks, building a fortress or walls out of dirt would be interesting. However, I would suggest this wait until walls being destructible is implemented. After that, instead of having them be "diggable" they could just be very weak, in addition to the danger of them melting in heavy rainfall.

I would also suggest instead of using some to-be-implemented wheelbarrow system you just use bags of dirt. This would solve several problems, and would make dirt buildings viable on minimalist challenges, assuming you can find a rope reed. It would also make this fairly easy for Toady to implement, an order could be given for filling bags with soil and then when you're ordering construction you simply select the bags of dirt instead of stone or wood.

[atomfullerene]

If you want a slightly more advanced version, you could implement brickmaking!  dirt + straw + sand (maybe), baked in a kiln (or sunbaked somehow) = an insanely complicated to make, low value building material.  Just be aware that if you go generally mistreating your immigrants and forcing them to make bricks and gather their own straw for your megaprojects, then don't come crying to me if your brook runs red and your fort gets buried in frogs and whatnot.

[GenericOverusedName]

I think this would work best if/when Toady implements more variable weather. A little drizzle would create little to no mud at all, whereas a monsoon could potentially cause massive mudslides and whatnot.

[Misterstone]

Would be cool to have large thick walls consisting of a brick outer shell with pounded earth inside, which is how city walls were constructed in many Asian countries.

[LeoLeonardoIII]

In the American midwestern frontier, settlers would often make sod houses. A draft animal would be hitched to a plough and cut long lines of sod. The settler would then walk along and cut the lines into blocks. These blocks were stacked as you'd expect to make walls.

The ceiling was either logs laid crosswise and sod laid atop it, or thatch and stick. They had doors and windows.

The Wiki suggests some downsides. The sod house, while very cheap and easy to make, requires much maintenance. Vermin are more of a problem.

I'd suggest for maintenance, that when water is adjacent to a sod wall there is a chance per X ticks for the wall to become damaged as if someone was mining it. This absorbs 1/7 water. The X is (8 minus water level), so if you flood your sod house it will check for damage per tick, but if 1/7 rain puddles are up against it the check is only per 7 ticks. A sod damage coefficient could be in the raws to let you multiply X by an arbitrary number.

Repair would involve deconstructing and rebuilding the wall.

You could "finish" the sod wall by reinforcing it. This just takes time, like smoothing, no materials. A finished sod wall becomes unifinished when it takes its first point of damage, instead of actually taking damage. In this way a reinforced sod house can be repaired instead of rebuilt by re-reinforcing it after the storm.

It would be lovely to see grass and even trees growing on a sod roof. I'd suggest that things will grow only on un-reinforced sod. I'd say that if your sod roof grows grass or plants it should be impervious to water - though if the walls get wet by shifting 1/7 water on the ground the whole thing could collapse.

Once we see wall-destroyers, padding the outside of your fortifications with dirt walls may be a worthwhile option.