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[EmperorJon]

This is over 3 years old...   Necro much?

[counting]

This is over 3 years old...   Necro much?

Cause someone probably just finished playing minecraft, and thinking of half-step.

[GreatWyrmGold]

Just a "low wall" would be the essence of this idea. Or maybe a few levels of wall-knee-high wall, waist-high wall, chest-high wall, full wall.

[Fieari]

This is over 3 years old...   Necro much?

Don't do this.  We like necro here, as long as there's something to contribute.

I, too, think all the problems with this concept could be overcome by making it simply an extension of the current system of walls, and not necessarily making any new rules.  I guess what I'm thinking of is just more of an 'elfier' (read "wimpier") version of current walls - more like a sort of fence.  For the half-height walls I envision, I'd be satisfied if it were some arbitrary height around 3 or 4 (in regards to containing fluids), non-walkable on top of the tiles, obstructive to all movement through, represented by a slightly different tile from full-height walls, and fit somewhere into the current system of different types of fortifications (i.e. somewhere between crenelations and walls).  I'm not too familiar with all the specifics, but it seems like something that could be easily added into the current set of building options.  It's also exciting to think of what could be done with something like this in place in the future, as the game develops more (what with things like climbing, defending barriers, and throwing objects as a part of everyday life).

The problem with just tacking it on for cover without doing anything else is twofold.

1) Toady doesn't do things halfway.  If he's changing / adding something, it will support everything that should logically come from that, or at the least support coding framework to make it possible later.

2) Fans would ask why they can't climb over 1-height walls.  Because not being able to do so would be INFURIATING in a very specific way.  Basically, many many many other videogames treat obstacles of any height as being insurmountable for stupid level design reasons, and we resent that in those games.  DF strives to be a simulator.  Putting chest high wall barriers (and 1 height would be even less than that!) as insurmountable obstacles would call to mind everything wrong about those other games, and highlight it even more by the fact that this is DF.

There are also other desired mechanics and things that would require 7 high walls to be done right-- see, sand flow mechanic threads and such. And Toady has on occasion even expressed interest in them.

So the trick is that if you do them, you need to do it right.  And doing it right will basically require pathfinding changes.  And pathfinding changes are... hard. And complicated.

Basically, if you can have a pathfinding system that is fast and thoroughly robust, there are hundreds of awesome new features that could be added, like this one, at very little additional overhead cost.  The problem with movement on multi-level walls is similar to the problem of mult-tile creatures, for instance.  If the multitile creature pathfinding problem is solved, this problem is pretty much solved too.  Who gets to path where, when.  It's not trivial, it's not easy, but hopefully we can get there.

[JasonMel]

This is interesting, because I was just thinking about having corpse-pile depth be quantized the same way as fluid depth. This would allow a goblin horde to swarm a fortress and swamp it under its own corpses, with new goblins climbing over old, dead ones until they build a large corpse ramp. This idea is borrowed from a Xanth fantasy novel (can't remember which one) by Piers Anthony some decades back.

Obviously it's just a daydream; there are implementation issues with this which may be insurmountable.

[Dutchling]

It would be crap to look at the map this way/
I say no

[Catastrophic lolcats]

Gonna have to say no on this to.

This is where the whole 2D tileset thing falls on it's arse, particularly when it's in ascii.
How would you express to the player how big the wall is? Are we going to have numbers clogging up the map like water?

If this was to be implemented somehow where would it end?
 "Since we have walls in fractional height how about ground so water flows better?"
Will the game just become a series of different coloured numbers?

The only way I could see this working is if flood gates could be set to different levels (1-7) to allow different water flows.

Conculsion: would work in a 3d/isometric game. Doesn't work on a game that uses 2d tilesets which already have z levels.

[SuicideJunkie]

What about having floodgates be configurable to only partly open or close?  Let them continue to block the tile, but allow fluids to flow through them if greater than the gate's effective height?
The idea is that fluid would be able to exit the gate anytime, but has to be greater than the gate height to enter the tile.
The mechanisms would block creature movement like a grate or fortification, while fluid trickles through.
Choosing open/close depths could work like pressure plates.

Example:
The dwarven baths could have a diagonal pressure-relief on the input side, and a 3-closed floodgate on the output side.
When triggered to the (semi-)closed state, the baths fill up to a depth of 3 and then 4's start spilling through the gate.  They'd pile up as 1's then 2's in the gate tile and then flow away from the gate to the drains.
When the floodgate is toggled to open, it completely opens and acts as normal, emptying the baths.

Alternatively, you could set the floodgate to fully close but only open to 2.  Thus you could irrigate your fields while guaranteeing that the reservoir will not drop into the 1's and evaporate.