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[ungulateman]

Okay, sandbags. Specially built containers you fill with sand (which might take a while), can be placed very quickly (move in, put them down, move out), block arrows / bolts / fire (at least for a while), can be destroyed by any enemy, and slow down those moving over them. Effectively, quick to setup, easily destroyed fortifications which can be reused. They could also be emptied for their sand contents, allowing canny players to use them to store sand for glass industries.

They would add to the defendability of a fortress, allowing your melee troops to not die if a bowgoblin looks at them, and shielding civilians from stray fire. Human siegers could also set them up around their campfires to protect them from your marksdwarves.

Thoughts?

[Derakon]

What about using them as emergency fluid containment? Y'know, like sandbags are actually used in modern times?

[Thanshin]

More ideas:

When constructing a sandbag, you can click multiple times, like a weapon trap; the limit is 7.

The constructed sandbag pile will block water which doesn't go over it's bag number (1/7 to completely block).

The sandbag pile is only walkable at 4/7 and below.

The sandbag pile only counts as fortification (can shoot through) between 3/7 and 5/7.

The sandbag pile in constructed in a single trip, no matter the number of bags. (I'm not too keen on this one).

[opsneakie]

Sounds like a reasonably good idea. /signed. This could be a great addition whenever constructions being destroyable comes around (which I think is still happening at some point, right?)

[ungulateman]

Nice ideas, Thanshin.

Also, using them to soak up water would be interesting. However, with most sources of water being effectively infinite in volume, they would have to either block water entirely or soak up infinite amounts of it.

[silhouette]

they dont have to soack up water... more of block water.

like walls but way faster built...

Also anyone have any idea when stacks are going to be implimented (random off topic question but meh)

[KenboCalrissian]

like walls but way faster built...

I hate to point this out, but currently walls are built near-instantaneously.  Fortifications are, too.  The only deciding factor in work speed is the distance between the rock and the location, and how quickly an available mason can get there.  They don't really add much in the way of blocking water, because why wouldn't you just build a wall since DF makes it so easy?

I don't see sandbags as being useful in Fortress mode, but that's not to say they're worthless.  Of the uses listed, only two really stand out for me.  One is the idea of specifying the height of the sandbags to allow water to flow over it only if it's a certain height - well, great, but why don't we do that with walls?  The other is that walls and fortifications take a painfully long time to deconstruct, whereas sandbags would not.

Fortunately, sandbags could become very useful in the ways described either for adventurers, or when we're allowed to take an army off site and wage wars away from home.  Bags of sand are easier to carry than boulders, and you're unlikely to bring masons in your army to construct defensive walls for you.  For this to work, you need to allow military units to carry and place the sandbags - I don't know if you want to allow everyone to do it, or specify a support class that could perform this and other tasks for you on the battlefield.

Honestly, I was against this idea when I first read it because I didn't see the need for a variation on a wall or a fortification, but as I talked myself through it I came around.  Consider me a supporter now.

[winner]

it would give sandbags an even greater advantage if they were allowed to constructed in already waterfilled tiles.

[lucusLoC]

i think the can also help when things like more advanced  wall building is in. there have been lots of thread on bricks, ruble walls, mortar etc. i think if we get those sandbags would be a nice addition. current build speed is a balance issue, and should be considered just a place holder for now.

[Darkond2100]

Make them unconstructible if DAMP, only destructible. You don't get your sand back from it when it's destroyed.

[Thanshin]

Let them pile as constructed when dropped down a shaft.

So you can channel a line over a flow, drop six or seven sandbags on each cell along its width to reduce the flow to a trickle, and then masons can go down and build proper walls.

[Pilsu]

While convenient, such a mechanic would make rivers act oddly. That is to say, they'd magically stop flowing altogether when dammed instead of flowing over or around the dam

[Mel_Vixen]

Hmmm some time ago i have seen a vid where sandbags (or rather soil-bags) are used for planting. especally in places with high erosion or our beloved stonetowers they could be used as selfrotting plant-pots. After the bag is rottet the roots of the plant hold the sand/soil.

Sandbags are too a good way to prevent damage from siegeweapons and would be nice for farming since you could flood a field with 1/7 water (given that you have some kind of valve) so you dont need to flood it entirely. Outdoors and especally from a esthetical point of view they would be nice.

[xdarkcodex]

I think sand bags would be a good addition to df.

[ungulateman]

^ Nice post.

Ooh, using sandbags as portable soil. That would make farming much easier to set up, if you could drag sand from one side of the map (which has three aquifers and two giant eagles) to the non-soil areas (which is chock-full of Limonite and has nothing more threatening than mountain goats).