Issues and thoughts about having a settlement by a river

[ukas]

This is my first post here, so as an introduction I'm quite new to the game, just got the game some days before the beta was released on experimental. My experience has changed from initial suspicion and confusion to enthusiasm, and I really like the game so far. Can't wait how it's going to be.There are bugs etc. sure, but I've created mods to some games, I kinda understand how things lead to other things both in good and bad.

So, I'm creating a settlement to this small valley in a canyon with a river, south from Bad Teeth, close to one of the towers in the east. The area is small and doesn't offer many resources, but I like the location so why not? It feels secluded in a cool way, like a hideout. Though the hungries, the dusties and the wildlife don't seem to have any problems finding it so my people have to fight them every now and then.

All this is okay so far, but when an attack is taking place, especially if the enemy is swimming towards the place, then my guys will rush into water, and everyone will just swim around in this weirdly hostile manner. It's funny as hell, but the game won't actually progress when they are doing that. So I order my guys to get back on the dry land, which they do, but just to merrily hop back into water again. More swimming takes place, and I have to tell my guys to get out of water for 10-20 times during a battle. When they come from any stretch of land the ensuing battle goes pretty much as it normally does, unless of course someone goes into the water. I believe everyone is aware of this and it will be solved somehow in time, I'm just curious will it be possible to actually fight when in water?

Another thing is building stuff into the river. At least with earlier beta versions it seemed like you could build things in water without much restrictions. And I thought that is very cool. People have built houses and other buildings to stand in the water for milleniums, why not in the game too. So, to block one route and to have kind of a bridge I decided to try to build a level 2 wall over the river. All went well, until there was one small piece in the middle, which couldn't be actually built. Unlike with other parts when the command was given the builder just stayed in the water and was unresponsive. I started another game soon after due to some other issues, but this left me wondering if it's possible at all to build a wall over the river, or should there be gates or something? Latter would make sense, as a mere wall would act like a dam which would break or flood the valley, while a gate would let water through it.

To put it short, I'm curious how these things will be implemented to the game, and while waiting should I just create settlements further from the water for now on?

edit: Oh yea, is it btw possible for a player to build a bridge?

[LostSaint6689]

the only thing I have an answer to is the player built bridge. You can use shift plus f12 and go to the buildings. in there you'll see a bridge you can place, I haven't used it so I'm not sure of how well it works (linking them together for a longer bridge for example).

[lucidmadness]

This cracks me up, but at least you'll have a way higher swimming skill than everybody else!

[Mattk50]

the solution is turrets on the coast, some of your guys go ahead to have a syncronized swimming competeition with the enemy while the rest of them shoot them with harpoons

[Berzerker Jay]

I think a portcullis to go over a stream could be a cool way of adapting a wall across without completely obstructing it, and also giving a somewhat different object to swap into the build that could have more access points to solve the problems of builders treading water instead of building.

Good feedback and an important area to think on.

[TotallyRandomPerson]

My opinions;

Building bridges? It would be nice but I don't think that's important. Lots of other things to do before the developers should concern themselves on that.

Combat near the water? Jeez, how do you fix that. It'd be nice if having 'chase' disabled would actually stop your people from chasing them into the water. Easy solution there.
Maybe some better path-finding around water, or specific path-finding for combat. Though again, as players it's quite easy to not deal with this problem. Deal with it later.

[ukas]

Yeah portcullis would be great, they did build those in castles and citadels located close to rivers and lakes to block enemy passage in siege situations etc. Not saying bridges should be in top of the list, I'll try LostSaint6689's tip and if it works then that's the solution for now. Also I will definitely have some turrets there. In principle that's not so fair but then who told them to attack? Good ideas for solutions here, thanks guys.

As we're on this topic, are there known plans to implement fishing? The word is surrounded by water, especially on the coast fishing would be the natural source of food and livelihood.

[swillo]

Check the feature requests I have started a fishing thread there already.

[imdare]

i myself have a small framing Village. (5 farms 2 stormhouses and a shack.) with 22 guys maintaining everyrhing.
Its in between the 3 holy farms.
Good stone resource and near Iron resources. And Almost completely surrounded by water.

I am at good relationship with the holy nation, and the only other visitors are hungrys and raptors, wich I can both easely Fend off.

Whenever an Hostile group comes closed, they get slowed down by the river, giving me plenty of time to set up a good defensive positions. (basicaly surrounded them.

I started building a defensive wall, touching the river, but it's far from finished. i think I have found a decent location for my town.

[swillo]

I have a base in a similar location, farms grow great there. I don't have must iron there, but have been supplementing my need by taking if off hungrys and holy nation patrols.
I have turrets and a gate up to ward off the raptors and hungrys.

Then the last time the holy nation came by they started talking smack about me, so I opened fire. Melted down their armor for more iron to build more turrets, cause now I think i'm gonna need them.

[Espa]

I have a feeling that once Archery is out and we can hire more ranged type fighters without turrets, that this will become an advantage as they'll be slowed down and you'll pick them off easily. Just have to manage your warrior types Helmsdeep style.